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Supermarket Mania 2

Score: 90%
ESRB: Everyone
Publisher: G5 Entertainment
Developer: G5 Entertainment
Media: Download/1
Players: 1
Genre: Puzzle (Time Management)/ Simulation/ Strategy

Graphics & Sound:

Supermarket Mania 2 is my first experience with a time management title from G5 Entertainment, but I'm ready for more. This bright, cheery time management offering gives players a chance to manage a fast-paced supermarket in locations such as a snowy resort, a beachside, a skyscraper and glitzy downtown Tinseltown.

Everything is clear and easily recognizable in the levels, whether it be the various fruits and veggies you'll be stocking or the magazines, coffee and milkshakes your customers might want.

It's the little things that count and Supermarket Mania 2 throws in lots of little extras. If you let things get too messy and don't take time to clean the floors, the customers' tracks will become clearly visible over time and, in fact, old food will fall to the ground causing customers to slip and fall. You might even see a rat or two running through your store if you aren't careful.

For the most part, the sound effects work well for the game and the background music for each level is cheerful and upbeat, but ultimately forgettable. However, when a celebrity makes a surprise visit to your store, an appropriately funny diddy plays in the background (and this was probably my favorite aspect of the sound) and all of your other customers stop and stare, awestruck at the celeb.


Gameplay:

Supermarket Mania 2 is a typical time management title in that you are tasked with pleasing customers and keeping things running smoothly. The story goes that you, as Nikki, are called upon by your uncle to help him by opening a supermarket in Tinseltown, at least for starters. Apparently, Nikki has an enemy from the previous game in Mr. Torg and he follows her from store to store, upsetting her apple cart, so to speak, by damaging various equipment in her store. But this is just one of the many things she'll encounter while working her way up the food store chain.

At the beginning of a shopping day, Nikki will stock the merchandise bins and then keep them refilled throughout the day as customers purchase items. Initially, she'll also have to run over to the register and ring up sales, at least until her friend Wendy steps in to man the cash registers mid-way through the first grocery store location, of which there are a total of 6, each containing 15 levels. Nikki is also responsible for running a tight ship and she'll have to mop the floor herself, but as she makes money, she'll be able to purchase upgrades, the least of which will be a vacuum that operates on its own, but more on the upgrades later.

Aside from stocking the food bins, which requires Nikki to go into the storeroom and load up her cart, she'll also have to make coffee and croissants for her customers, make milkshakes and pizza to sell and even make fresh-made juice. Depending on which store location she's in will determine which machine she has available to her to make extra goodies for her customers. These bring in more sales. Once the units are in place, the store might have a special day like Pizza Day or Coffee Day and you'll do nothing but make that one item all day. Making it through one of these days earns you one of many achievements.

In addition to keeping things clean, customers also need bins to shop and you have to move the bins from the checkout counter to the opposite side for customers to grab.

You'll have many different customer types including patient old ladies, impatient techie geeks, pre-teen girls who romp around your store and do damage if you don't sic the policeman on them, and even moms that lose their little kids and you must retrieve them. You'll also have customers who come to the window and have a large order (3 different items) and you'll have to fetch those things for them. Each customer has a meter in the form of a happy face and as their patience wanes, the face gets angrier in appearance. If it goes from green to yellow and all the way to red, you lose the customer.


Difficulty:

There is no difficulty level in Supermarket Mania 2 and honestly, I burned through this game in a matter of days, but it was a blast! With each supermarket location that you start, you'll begin slowly with a small selection of goods to sell and a slow trickle of customers. As the time at each location progresses, you'll earn money allowing you to upgrade the size of your food bins which makes things easier, but at the same time, more is expected of you. For instance, at first, you may be required to keep the coffee coming for your customers. Then they'll add a croissant stand and you'll have to keep that stocked. Then they'll throw a milkshake stand and a fresh fruit juice stand at you and sometimes even fresh pizza. When you've got a bunch of different ancillary items to keep preparing, in addition to keeping everything else well stocked, the store clean and the baskets ready, it can be quite a handful. Throw on top of that having to keep control of thieves who come to rob you and watching for mischievous young girls who are out to make a mess and you are in for a workout. Finally, the nefarious Mr. Torg will also make various appearances and he always destroys a piece of your equipment, whether it be your coffee grinder or maker, your juice maker or your milkshake maker. Then you've got to take the time to repair the machine, which costs you a minute or so of your time, plus you've probably got orders building up all the while.

Game Mechanics:

Everything in Supermarket Mania 2 is accomplished with the click and the flourish of the mouse. You'll control Nikki by clicking where you want her to go. You can queue up quite a number of moves ahead of yourself and Nikki will just keep going until she's accomplished them and you can cancel a queued move by right clicking. Clicking a food bin has her go and refill it or retrieve items from it, depending on what you did right beforehand. For instance, say you need to make a milkshake and for that, you'll need to click the milkshake machine, causing the milk cooler and the ice cream cooler to sparkle, which indicates you need to obtain those items. Then you'll click those locations and Nikki will grab the items, then you'll click the milkshake machine and she'll make the shake. However, if you approach the milk cooler and its empty, Nikki will first fill the bin and then grab the item.

Each fill up of her food basket for filling bins will fill 5 bins at a time with each visit to the storeroom. Once she purchases the upgrade for the basket, she'll be able to fill 7 bins with one fill up. Consequently, upgrading the storeroom means she'll fill her basket that much quicker. There are also several levels of upgrades you can purchase to increase the size of your food bins. Each one starts at the Base Level and can increase from Small to Medium to Large. Nikki's cleaning apparatus goes from her controlling a mop to a vacuum she can start up to finally, an automatic vacuum that activates whenever the floor warrants it.

Other upgrades that you can buy include nicer decor or a large TV for the wall to encourage patience, or even operators for the various machines like the coffee maker, pizza maker, milkshake machine or fruit juicer. While they don't get the groceries required to make the item, once you dump those off, they'll finish the job for you and can be a tremendous timesaver.

Lastly, you can buy items to boost your performance like cookies to brighten everyone's mood, an energy drink for a burst of speed and a cleaning solution to give the entire place the ol' spit shine.

Overall, if you enjoy time management, you'll want to give Supermarket Mania 2 a spin. It's great fun and while it doesn't last forever, you'll enjoy it.


-Psibabe, GameVortex Communications
AKA Ashley Perkins

Minimum System Requirements:



OS: Windows XP/Vista, CPU: 1.0 GHz, RAM: 512 MB, DirectX: 8.0, Hard Drive: 70 MB, Minimum Screen Resolution: 800x600
 

Test System:



Windows Vista, 2 GHz AMD Phenom 9500 Quad-Core Processor, 8GB RAM, Realtek High Definition Audio On-Board Sound, NVIDIA GeForce 8300

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