No Pineapple Left Behind is an odd school management game in which an evil wizard has cast a spell that turns students into pineapples. You can teach them well and turn them back into students or try to stick with pineapples – pineapples are never going to be straight ‘A’ students, but students are expensive!
Poking fun at America’s 2002 No Child Left Behind Act, in which school funding is directly tied to test scores, in No Pineapple Left Behind you must decide whether to de-humanise children or humanise pineapples. Pineapples are simple beings, they go to school, study, take tests and get grades – they’ll never be straight ‘A’ students, but they are cheap and low maintenance. Children on the other hand are a lot more complex and expensive to teach as they have real emotions and social interactions, but they can get better grades than pineapples given the proper tutoring – and better grades means more money for the school.
Money is a big factor in No Pineapple Left Behind, you are given an aim of generating a certain income and can go about it as you see fit – prioritising pineapples or people. Among other things you hire teachers, manage what spells they use on the students and unlock new spells for them as they gain XP. You can even keep an eye on the students personal and social traits help them complete ‘quests’.
No Pineapple Left Behind is still early in development, but it’s a shaping up nicely, a fun management sim and a light-hearted dig at the American education system. Nobody wants a classroom full of pineapples, but if you can’t afford to treat students like people then what are you going to do?
Update: Alpha No Longer Available