Sports Card Shop Simulator
Review
Open your doors to the lucrative business of selling sport cards
by Howie Howard
reviewed on PC
My interest in the nations concept was based on the fact that Sports Card Shop Simulator might have been released to honour the World Cup which is happening now in the US. However, I wasn't sure if there is a specific connection to the WC intended. A WC connection could explain the fact of why only the sport of soccer is included as the main subject. I read the following press description: "collect players from over 50 national teams as they compete to win the CUP!" and "Enjoy the excitement of the game as you open cards revealing an unforgettable tournament."
Does it really matter if the shop is focused only on the World Cup?
No, it doesn't matter much but, okay, I guess there actually is some kind of connection to the World Cup. In the United States, even though soccer is fairly popular, baseball, American football and basketball are very popular. I can't really say that I'm a huge fan of soccer other than the fact that I am aware of the World Cup that is happening now. However, I am a big fan of sports cards, mainly of the baseball variety because as a kid I did build up quite a large collection. I still possess some of them to this day. With that said, that's why I'm a bit disappointed that only soccer is present in game.
However, there is more than just World Cup soccer in the game. This sports card shop sim does feature other soccer related paraphernalia such as card holders, team balls, card frames, albums and such. All of it can eventually be collected or sold in game. Of course, much of this is not present at the start of the game, and you will need to reach set experience levels which will then open the option to access these additional items. There is a large assortment of over 4,000 cards available. This breaks down to special cards, hologram cards, autographed cards and much more that can be collected and sold! Like with other business simulations the goal is to grow the business as the main focus and developer OverPowered Team did do a fine job in that regard.
More than just the World Cup?
Exactly how and why did we suddenly become the owner of this small football card shop? We are plopped down on to what appears to be a tiny football pitch in front of the shop. A tutorial box pops up telling us to "open tablet and buy card packs from wholesaler". That sounds simple enough so I do that but where are the cards I just bought? Walking around I see a box on the street in front of the shop. Highlighting and clicking one of the mouse buttons puts the box in my characters hands and I commence to place card packs on the one supplied card sales rack. Then I'm told to open five packs and that's the gist of the tutorial.
Yes, there is a basic tutorial but it isn't really of much help. I continue by setting the prices of individual cards and packs along with taking care of other business. The game itself is not difficult to figure out. Players point and click on items and do various things in a random form of a click and try method. Things eventually get done. You are instructed to use the provided tablet and that's because everything such as ordering merchandise, paying bills, expanding the shop and even hiring employees is accomplished via the tablet. Unfortunately I made the mistake of greatly over pricing my card packs and singles to the point that customers showed sad red smiley faces and I had a slew of bad comments from customers. This in turn hurt the shops rating.
With the poor tutorial, it would have been nice to include a hint system that would suggest hiring employee. That way the onslaught of customers paying for card packs would be taken care of more easily. The trial-and-error approach eventually works, but some hints would have been beneficial in order to make things go smoother. As an example I had no idea that it might be time to set up a card rating system which in fact can improve the hit or miss card pricing that I was doing! Knowing when to start auctions to get customers involved would also have been helpful and hints could be turned off by player choice.
In the beginning when I was first plopped down on to the tiny pitch to start my adventure to the time when I actually did become a soccer card shop owning entrepreneur, everything seemed to be trial and error. I say that because I missed out on some game features only to discover them later when the small amount of extra experience didn't mean as much.
Despite the fact that Sports Card Shop Simulator should actually have been titled Football (or Soccer) Card Shop Simulator, the game itself is quite solid. I'm thinking that if the developer wanted to attract additional American card shop sim fans instead of just the World Cup variety, perhaps adding baseball, basketball and American football in the next version of the game might help. This might be something to think about for the future.
I'm American, but I still like this card game!
Folks, Soccer Card Shop Simula..... errrr rather Sports Card Shop Simulator is a deep sim in regard to the various aspects of the sports card business...and it's fun. Some of the things can certainly be repetitive, but once we learn that workers can be hired then things go even smoother. My initial experience of being over whelmed by an over abundance of card purchasers all needing to have their purchase checked out by manual input of numbers in to a credit card machine or counting out exact change in dollars and cents made early actions be a chore. To resolve the money collection problem I recommend setting all card prices to a rounded number, or better yet, hire some employees. Just remember you have to pay them and that could turn in to a problem of it's own early on. Sure you do have to pay employees but you are still able to just sit back and then, cha-ching, my money coffers are starting to over flow!
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8.3
fun score
Pros
A deep Soccer / Football card shop business sim
Cons
The name could be changed to "Soccer Card Shop Simulation" for better accuracy.
