As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases
I found this cheap indie title on the Nintendo eshop called Mall Manager, and I thought I would give it a shot. Well, let’s just discuss how this adventure went.
Gameplay
You start with a simple grocery store. You have a register and a shelf. You automatically pick up crates of items, carry them and fill the shelf, then customers come in and buy it. Take that money and put it into spaces marked to unlock more shelves. Eventually, you unlock the upgrade booth. Here you can spend money to hire a cashier, a stock person and other upgrades like a profit multiplier.
After unlocking everything within the grocery store, you can open up another section of the mall, which gives you access to a garden area and an arcade. I unlocked everything the game had to offer in about 30 minutes or so. It isn’t very in depth, and slightly misleading. It advertises running a mall and employing staff, but what they really mean is you’ll get a max of two employees in the grocery store and one in the arcade.
On top of all this, neither of those stores run if you aren’t close by. Such as, if you went to the garden, neither of the other locations are pulling in money. For customers to come inside, you have to be present. This is a total waste, and makes the arcade feel absolutely useless as it doesn’t wield nearly the amount of money as the grocery store does.
The game also does not have a pause menu. Fortunely, and surprisingly, the game does save after every dollar made it seems. It doesn’t quite make up for the lack of everything else, but it’s at least a very tiny saving grace. Mixed in with the upgrade booth is a restart button, and it costs $8,000, which I haven’t made yet. It feels as if I’ve seen all the game has to offer at this point.
Soundtrack
The music isn’t bad, but maybe slightly annoying. The game beeps when you stock an item. This made me cut the volume and actually listen to music instead, which is something I actually prefer doing when playing roguelike titles like Monster Panic, but anyway.
Graphics
They definitely are not anything special, but for a game that costs a dollar, what can one expect? I think they do the job, and that’s about it.
Controls
The controls for Mall Manager aren’t too difficult, they’re just overall simple and mostly everything is automatically done for you. all that’s really done is moving around, and confirming upgrades.
Replayability
While this game may be short and it lacks depth, I can at least say it was fun for a short time while I was trying to build up the spaces. I would perhaps play again if I wanted to kill a few minutes of my time.
Scores
Gameplay: 4/10
Soundtrack: 2/10
Graphics: 3/10
Controls: 3/10
Replayability: 4/10
Overall:
Conclusion
While the game isn’t absolutely awful, it isn’t flushed out or done very well either. The idea behind it seemed fun, but I feel as if the description is a lie. You do not employ multiple staff. You only employ two with the third being given to you. The mall itself is lacking space, and the two shops don’t even run simultaneously or at all if you aren’t standing there.
I spent about $.50 on this thanks to some coins I had. It wasn’t bad for that price, but I would only buy this if you want something easy to play. Then again, there’s too many better options around for even that. Take Wire Lips, for example. In the end, I would say avoid this game.
Leave a Reply