Candy Shop Simulator Review - A pretty but Bare-Bones and Unfinished Management Sim
Some games have a lot of potential. This is a review about what happens when that potential is completely and utterly squandered.
On the surface, Candy Shop Simulator looks like a winner. It has a cute, cozy premise and surprisingly clean graphics that are a welcome relief from the usual muddy, asset-flipped sludge that plagues the simulator genre. I went in expecting a relaxing, addictive little management game.
What I got was a hollow, unfinished experience that feels more like a tech demo than a full game. And the most shocking part? This isn't Early Access. The developers are selling this as a finished, 1.0 product, which is frankly insulting.
A Shop with No Instructions
The game's biggest sin is its complete and utter refusal to explain a single goddamn thing. You are dropped into your shop with zero guidance. How do you level up? What do the little meters above the customers' heads mean? Why are half the apps on your in-game phone locked? Who the hell knows.
There's a "Help" button, but it's a sick joke, offering almost no useful information about the game's core mechanics. I was left to just blindly click around, trying to reverse-engineer the most basic systems. It doesn't feel like a game; it feels like I paid to be an uncredited beta tester.
The "Simulator" with No Simulation
For a game with "Simulator" in the title, it's missing almost every feature that defines the genre. You want to set your own prices to balance profit and demand? Too bad. The game doesn't let you.
Want to understand what your customers actually want to buy? Good luck. There's no system for customer demand, so you're just randomly stocking shelves and hoping for the best. There's no day/night cycle, no way to speed up time when things are slow, and an overworld map with locations that have absolutely no purpose. It’s a management game with no management.
A Fresh Coat of Paint on an Empty Room
The game does have a few things going for it. The graphics, as I said, are pleasant. The top-down, grid-based building system is also a nice touch for designing your shop's layout. But these are just minor positives in a sea of baffling design choices.
The mouse sensitivity is an uncontrollable nightmare, flinging your view around wildly during some tasks while being painfully slow in others. The hitboxes for interacting with things like the cash register are so tiny you have to pixel hunt just to do your job. And the customer dialogue is so lifeless, with almost every response being a simple "ok," that it feels like you're running a shop for emotionally vacant robots.
The Verdict
Candy Shop Simulator is a case of wasted potential. It has the charming aesthetic of a great cozy game, but it's a completely hollow experience. It's a shallow, repetitive clicker that's missing the most basic features you'd expect from a management sim.
The fact that this is being sold as a full release is unacceptable. It’s a beta at best, a game that feels like it's months, if not a year, away from being ready. As it stands now, it's a boring, frustrating, and ultimately pointless experience. Save your money.
Score: 4.5/10 A game with the potential of a gourmet chocolate bar but the substance of a sugar-free gummy bear.