Conveni Dream

Genre: Management Simulation

Players: 1

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Review:

Conveni Dream is a Management Simulation released on Nintendo 3DS in 2016. This game has players managing a convenience store to try and make it successful.

This game features a simple presentation that uses cartoony 2D graphics and an upbeat synthesized soundtrack that works well enough for the game, but does come across a bit like a mobile game.

When it comes to the gameplay, Conveni Dream has some of the same issues that Gourmet Dream has, but does a better job compensating for those issues with other elements. You still feel like you’re artificially limited in what you can do in this game, but your actions feel far less like they’re being dictated this time around – you may not be given much leeway to fill your space as you would like, and may not have a wide variety of choices to fill it with, but you can pretty much place whatever you want wherever you want in the store’s customer area.

You’re also given a much clearer indication of what items are in demand by which sorts of customers, and how frequently you should expect to see those demographics in your store in the current situation. Where Gourmet Dream was somewhat confusing in how it provided players with information, Conveni Dream is far easier to understand.

However, there is one other element here that may be a bit divisive. Players will be doing a lot of micromanaging in this game. Whenever a shelf runs out of stock, you’ll need to manually direct your employees to refill the shelf, and what to fill it with. When the trash needs to get emptied or the entryway needs to be mopped, you’ll need to direct your janitorial staff to do it. When customers are drunk or out of control, when shoplifters try to steal from your store, you’ll be pointing them out to your staff to address.

It may surprise you to hear, but I found all this busywork to make the game more engaging, making it feel like I always had something to do, and giving me multiple opportunities to change things around if they’re not working – each time a shelf of food starts to go bad, players are faced with a choice of whether to restock that item and hope that sales pick up, or swap it out with something else and see if you do better.

I’m still frustrated at how Conveni Dream won’t let me use the space I already have until I “level up” my store and gain access to more space and more inventory to choose from, and the limited options make this game at times feel more restrictive than some other entries in the genre, but overall I think this is a fun and surprisingly engaging Management Simulation, and fans of the genre with a Nintendo 3DS should check it out… at least if they think they’ll enjoy micromanaging their little store.

tl;dr – Conveni Dream is a Management Simulation where players manage their own convenience store. The way the game limits what you can do at any given time is somewhat frustrating, but I found that the micromanaging elements of this game actually manage to make it more engaging, resulting in a game that fans of this sort of Simulation-style game should definitely give a look, at least if they’re not opposed to being a micromanager.

Grade: C+

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