Glorified Flash game or something more?
Supermarket Mania
Developer: G5 Entertainment
Publisher: G5 Entertainment
Release Date: November 22, 2010
500 Nintendo Points
[starreview]
In Supermarket Mania, you play as Nikki, an enthusiastic stocking girl for a grocery store chain. As the store stocker, you’re responsible for keeping merchandise on the floor stocked so that customers can snap them up. There are multiple types of merchandise and a flood of customers that want that banana or lemon lickity-split. Fail to restock quick enough, you’ll lose a customer. Nikki is limited in what she can carry in her cart to reload the shelves, so this leads to a struggle to strike the balance between the shelves and stockroom.
It’s not just the merchandise that needs attention however. There can be rambunctious teenagers and thieves that will require you to notify the guard on duty. While teenagers will make a mess and slow you down by having to clean it up, thieves will make you lose money. Since you’re able to either tap the guard on the screen or use the microphone, I found myself yelling more often in the later levels, simply so I could keep pace.
When you’re finished with a level, you’ll be graded on your performance. If more customers were able to grab what they wanted easily, you’ll earn more money and a better overall score for the level. Money later on becomes important for upgrades to your store. Being able to sell a higher quality product, or make Nikki restock faster become crucial in surviving later levels.
Aside from the actual gameplay, there’s the story which is told through comic panels spread out through the game. Instead of use one screen for a panel, it seems the developers borrowed a page from the Nintendo DSi Browser. To browse through the comic, you’ll use the bottom screen to move around a magnified section of the top screen. I’m not completely sure why they did this, but it works in getting you to read it. The story itself has Nikki first working for a mega chain, which is then staffed by robots. After she’s fired she finds work with a sort of grass roots type of grocery store. It feels somewhat like a story of a mega chain such as Safeway versus a mom and pop storefront.
If you don’t want to bother with the story, there’s an endless mode. In this, you’ll receive bonuses for staying on top of the store as you would in the story mode. As the name implies, it’s endless, so you’ll have customer after customer wanting merchandise until you finally anger ten into leaving. At the end, you’ll be scored. The bonuses will translate into keeping your customers happy and thus a higher score.
The sound quality is nothing too special in the game. There are a few tunes, such as the title screen, that tend to get stuck in my head. When events happen in the game, such as customers becoming unhappy, the audio queue is clear and alerts you to the need. As for the controls, it’s done with the touchscreen, except the aforementioned use of the microphone for the guard.
For 500 Nintendo Points, Supermarket Mania for DSiWare isn’t a horrible deal. I went in thinking that this shouldn’t be more than 200 points, but was pleasantly surprised. The content is there, with approximately 50 levels to go through. It is hampered down slightly by the storyline being sparse and cheesy at times. Still, for an arcade type game of organizational skills, it has its fun points.
Thanks to G5 for the opportunity to check the game out for review!
