Megastore: Tidy Up Together Avis (PC)

In the last two or three months the words tidy up together have become increasingly difficult to avoid. Ever since Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library dropped, it seems as if the trend has shifted in favor of a slightly more relaxed tone. Alas, RPGs are no longer the norm in the mainstream, whereas games in which you spend several hours fumbling around collecting and rearranging books and plushies in department stores are suddenly all the rage. It just so happens that Megastore: Tidy Up Together is another hot, albeit familiar take on the seemingly unshakable trend. The question is, does it do anything to elevate the existing formula, or does it fall into the same trap as a needle in a haystack? Let’s talk about it.

In any case I’d say that the words ‘tidy up together’ are universal in the context of an organizing sim. Frankly, these words are all too common in the cozy sphere, given that not one, but dozens of others have adopted them to craft their own take on Librarian. Megastore: Tidy Up Together really isn’t all that different, in that it utilizes the same basic infrastructure and chaotic environment. True to the point of an organizing sim, it hands you a room with thousands of leftover items, and it tells you to start rifling through the haystack to bring the store back to life, piece by piece.

Initially, I wanted to roll my eyes at Megastore, to label it as a copycat game and to sweep it aside so that I could focus on the other twenty-something cleaning sims that were piling up on my desk. Several minutes in, however, something clicked. I had an inkling that it had a little more to it than the others of its kind. The routine was the same as before, yet it had a bit more to offer than vast needles and the one giant haystack. Rather than saddling me with a white-washed, almost clinically barren facility with a static ambiance, it gave me a chance to bury myself in three separate mounds: a toy store, a supermarket, and a megastore. It had a lot of work for me, and honestly, I was more than happy to get lost in the graft for a while.

Plucking through piles of plushies and groceries is a bit like putting on an old pair of jeans, in that you know the size, the length, and the weight of the job, as do you know that, while they’re not entirely unique or the least bit fashionable, they serve their purpose and get you from point A to point B. Megastore, like any good pair of jeans, is a comfortable fit that, while still lacking in flair or durability, gives you what you want: an opportunity to breathe, to unwind, and to walk a thousand miles in the company of familiarity.

Spread over three jam-packed locations, Megastore provides an excellent opportunity to switch off from the hustle and bustle of the outside world and to bury your head in a long and surprisingly rewarding graft. Thousands of unique items idle before you, and you, being the plucker of random objects, sort through the clutter with the intention of restoring each space to its original state. It isn’t glamorous work, and it doesn’t culminate in a whopping six-figure cash payout. It is, quite simply, soft labor for the casual worker — and it works.

While the general process of tidying up each of the three locations is relatively straightforward, the game does offer some great gameplay options, with some clean quality-of-life upgrades that happily surpass the average AI-skewered slop. Movement is fluid, and the act of holding, storing, and placing items is a natural process that doesn’t require a lot of extra legwork. To add, it presents a polished environment, a subtle yet repetitive soundtrack, and a calm atmosphere that is surprisingly easy to unwind to for hours at a time. Oh, it’s still the same basic bird song that we’ve heard a hundred times before, but to give credit where credit is due, it is a song that holds its own rhythm, despite having the exact same chorus.

If not for its quality-of-life features and its three-piece suite of stores, Megastore would be a lot harder to recommend to the average consumer. Thankfully, though, the game does bring a lot of content to the table, with an enormous collection of items, a variety of categories, and dozens of floors to work through, as well as a skill tree that you can punch holes in to make your job a little easier. It also makes an otherwise dull experience all the more enjoyable to endure, thanks to its implementation of smooth, customizable controls that allow for easy handling and seamless navigation.

It’s no secret that cleaning games are a dime-a-dozen in this day and age. That being said, there is a market for them, especially those that make the extra effort to implement a system that allows for multiple users to collaborate simultaneously. Megastore, fortunately, has both of these things, as does it have a foundation to build on in the future. And that’s a huge plus here, what with the amount of AI-skewered cash grabs that are currently swallowing the cozy space whole with no intention of sticking around.

Speaking of future updates, as Yolo Games Studio has since announced its plans to implement a create-your-own level editor, as well as two additional stores to the base game in the coming months, it would seem that this particular project will have a lot more to offer than your bog-standard clean-‘em-up sim. Because apparently, 13,000 items in a superstore isn’t enough. Nevertheless, Megastore clearly has its priorities in the right place, and we’re all for it.

Verdict

Megastore: Tidy Up Together serves its purpose as a jam-packed three-in-one clean-‘em-up simulation game that combines the seamless integration of a cozy environment and a stupendously satisfying gameplay loop with a meticulously crafted world of random objects and colorful clutter. While it might not add a second layer to an existing formula or do anything to build on previous Librarian-like iterations, it does make for one of the more appealing organizing sims on the market, with fluid mechanics, greater variety in gameplay, and better quality-of-life features.