Candy Shop Simulator Review (PC)

I’ll be frank with you, if a game has simulator in its title, then there’s a good chance that it also has its claws dug into Games Incubator’s ever-expanding catalog of mediocre shovelware works. I’m not saying that the studio has a knack for launching these sorts of things, but at this point, I’d say that it’s almost impossible to find a career choice that hasn’t received that oily adaptation treatment. It just so happens that Candy Shop Simulator is the next product to bleed from its core. And to think, Chocolate Factory Simulator has only just launched on PC, which further illustrates my point that, if there’s a product to ship or a familiar trade to imitate, then it’s likely that Games Incubator has its fingers wedged in the pie.

Of course, where most developers have their hands in other baked goods, Games Incubator prefers to pour its heart and soul into recreating a lot of the same basic concepts. This time, however, it isn’t so much about groceries, animals, or car parts (I could also list another thirty-six, give or take, but I won’t) as it is about confectionary. Like Chocolate Factory Simulator, I suppose, but with a few more clotted features and an extra lashing of sprinkles peppered over the traditional process of boxing, serving, and upgrading a storefront to attract more customers.

To be perfectly clear, Candy Shop Simulator is still a dime-a-dozen affair, and it doesn’t exactly do much to shake up the usual formula, either. Having said that, it is a game that has a fan base attached to it. It’s just a shame that the folks over at Games Incubator have chosen to milk the cash cow dry instead of replacing the herd, so to speak.

Another Slice of Chore Core Work

At the heart of Candy Shop Simulator is the same basic bone structure that we’ve analyzed a dozen times before. By that I mean, it actively chooses to keep to the same basic model, which more or less involves the player mindlessly serving paper-thin customers and making minor but cost-effective changes to the business to help it both grow and thrive over a lengthy period of time. The only major difference between this and say, Shopkeeper: My First Supermarket, is the product that it puts out on display for you to sell. And yes, it’s candy.

There’s a predictable gameplay loop to absorb here, and one that unapologetically relies on the usual trappings of a business simulator to construct its walls. Like before, it tasks its fledgling storekeepers with building, managing, and maintaining a store—a stepping stone procedure that involves a lot of generic chore core jobs, including stacking shelves, serving customers, and making general improvements to both the interior design and the baked goods and other sugary treats that you serve on a tiered scale. In other words, it plays to the same beat as its kin. But it works — incredibly well, at that.

Candy Shop Simulator might be lacking in original content, but for the record, it isn’t a bad game; it’s just a formulaic one that doesn’t make much of an effort to surpass its predecessor. In fact, if you were to remove the confectionary from the mixing bowl, then you would probably struggle to tell the difference between this and the other ingredients that drizzle out Games Incubator’s overflowing strainer. If that isn’t enough to bother you, though, then it’s likely that you’ll have the stomach and the palate to sift through another chapter.

Sugar & Spice

To give credit where it’s due, Candy Shop Simulator does get a few things right. Aside from it being overtly generic and predictable, it does, in all fairness, offer its users the opportunity to explore some enjoyable content—creating confectionaries, being the standout feature of the bunch, funnily enough. There are also plenty of great building blocks to work with, too, with a lot of thematic set pieces, architectural elements, and storefront cosmetics to swap and customize. What’s more, there is a full-fledged world to scoot around in, which, in all honesty, is a neat addition to the existing format of the studio’s episodic saga.

The NPCs here are still as emotionless and as wooden as ever, per the Games Incubator famous mandala effect. Scratch that from the system, as well as the in-game characters having little to no outstanding traits whatsoever, and you have a relatively good-looking world here. Sure, it’s crammed with all of the usual blemishes that come with a bog-standard business sim, but it’s also in receipt of a quality amount of said blemishes and features. The building and designing process, for example, is teeming with a great deal of cosmetics and upgradable components. There’s enough for you to carve through here, in fact, that you could quite easily spend a lot of time fleshing out the details and adding some custom flair to the blueprint.

Let it be said that, while Candy Shop Simulator has a good variety of neat touches, the game as a whole is still the same thing that we’ve clocked several times before. For that, you can definitely expect to bump into your fair share of teething issues and graphical glitches. Granted, it isn’t as broken as a lot of sims, though it does harbor its share of shoddy components.

Verdict

Candy Shop Simulator falls into that same category that we’ve seen being milked for years. But that isn’t to say that it’s a bad game; on the contrary, it’s a good extension to the conveyor belt of shovelware classics that Games Incubator unloads on a weekly basis. Sure, it’s still of a similar design, and it doesn’t really add a great deal of additional complexity to the existing blueprint. But then, as the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And honestly, it’s becoming more and more apparent that Games Incubator of all studios is fully aware of this winning formula.

If you’re familiar with the concept behind marketing and business sims, and also share an undying love of onboarding each new episode that rolls out to bolster Games Incubator’s inescapable presence, then there’s a good chance that you’ll enjoy swapping whatever condiment that you’re currently holding for a packet of Sour Patch Kids in Candy Shop Simulator.