Convenience Stories

Genre: Management Simulation

Players: 1

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Review:

Without a doubt the most prolific developer and publisher of Management Simulation games on Nintendo Switch is Kairosoft, who specializes in games with a retro-style isometric pixel art style, often with the word “Story” in the title. As of this writing, Kairosoft has released 62 games on Nintendo Switch, most of them Management Simulations.

After their earlier games, Kairosoft had established a few templates for their Simulation games that later games would largely follow. Game Dev Story established a Simulation-style game more focused on managing employee time and focus, Hot Springs Story established a Simulation style in line with Theme Park Simulators where you try to cater to guests’ tastes to maximize attendance and income, and Epic Astro Story established a Simulation style akin to games like Sim City, where you’re building out a town or settlement. And then there’s a template that has you managing not employees but members of a sports team, something we first saw in Grand Prix Story.

Convenience Stories originally released on mobile devices in 2022, then received a port to PC and Nintendo Switch in 2023, then to PlayStation 4 in 2024 and Xbox One in 2025. This is a game that fits in that second “cater to guests” category, with players building their convenience store up to attract customers and sell products.

At its core, the gameplay here is decent, but it all feels too restrictive. A part of this is the usual “Kairosoft jank”, things like being unable to set product prices or determine employees’ wages. But you’re also drip-fed things like the types of products you can sell or even the number of registers you can have open. It all still works, but it makes players feel less like they’re making choices to guide their store to success, and instead makes them feel like they’re only selecting between the few options the game allows them.

As for the presentation, this is in line with what we’re used to from Kairosoft. As I mentioned above, this game makes use of Kairosoft’s signature presentation style using simple retro-styled pixel art visuals (here presented in an isometric overhead view perspective), paired with upbeat synthesized music that’s largely forgettable. For the most part, everything about this presentation is really endearing, though by this point we’ve seen more or less the same thing in numerous other Kairosoft games.

Overall, my lack of enthusiasm for Convenience Stories isn’t because it’s a bad concept or even a bad game, but because the overall pacing is off and the choices are too restrictive, and plenty of other games do this sort of thing better, including other games from Kairosoft. If you enjoy Kairosoft’s style of games and like the theme of managing a convenience store, this game will likely satisfy you, but if you’re not married to this specific theme you have better options in this genre.

tl;dr – Convenience Stories is a Management Simulation where players manage a convenience store, and while this is a decent enough game at its core, the pacing is slow and the lack of choice in some areas is disappointing. This isn’t a bad game, but you have numerous better options in the genre.

Grade: C+

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