Tamagotchi Connexion: Corner Shop 2 (Nintendo DS) Review

The Tamagotchi series has never been about appearance, as you could probably tell from the little basic creatures that were featured on the egg things that were all the rage in the early 1990s...and nothing has changed for this new DS game. Everything is pretty and colourful, but as it is hardly aimed at the mainstream audience, the basic visual style taken is not exactly an issue. The same goes for the soundtrack, which is very much aimed at a younger demographic and succeeds in delivering a cheery, light-hearted theme that fits the game perfectly.

What is surprising is how the main gameplay is far better than expected. Anyone that has become enamoured with the likes of the WarioWare series or even something like Cooking Mama will find something of interest in Corner Shop 2, since it takes the same mini-game approach on the whole. Just like in the first game, you are a member of staff at a new establishment and your aim is to provide a wonderful service to numerous customers and in turn gain sufficient Gotchi points to be able to peruse the plethora of items available for purchase.

Each customer will wander into the store and request something, for example a particular type of cake (if you have chosen to start off by working in the cake store) or to have their vehicle cleaned, waxed and polished (if instead you are working at the car wash). You then have a restricted amount of time to carry out the request, which takes the form of a little mini-game (like with the car wash where you must frantically rub different areas of the vehicle until it gleans). Upon completion, depending on how well you finished the task and how speedy you were in execution, you will receive a different amount of praise when the customer is leaving (in the form of smiley faces, with three being the maximum) and sometimes even receive advice on how to improve your work.

When enough people are satisfied, Princess Tamako enters and offers to expand your shop and once it has reached its greatest possible size it is time to focus on a new type of store, of which there are twelve, with eight locked to start with. Sadly the mini-games are rather repetitive and there is hardly any challenge, even for younger players. Just take the fast-food creation game, where one of four possible ingredients slowly floats downwards and you must ensure the final product looks exactly like the image on the top screen. With the snail-pace at which they drop, you would actually have to walk away from the DS to fail...Then there is the fact that most of the mini-games are basically the same; so you can probably see why the appeal wears off after a short time, especially if you must play the same one repeatedly to expand your shop!

It is well executed, with good use of the two screens and touch input, but short bursts of play are advised to ensure boredom does not hit soon after purchase. As for longevity, your Tamagotchi play-mate chosen at the beginning of the game requires no looking after and barely interacts with you when spending your 'money' on the various accessories. So gaining more Gotchi points becomes somewhat redundant overall. Maybe if the game was priced at a lower point of