Cassandra Morgan

View Original

Game review: Pet Shop Hop

Lately, a lot of pet-themed time management games have relied on grooming pets. You wash a dog, cut its hair then give it back to the owner. Pet Shop Hop is a pet-themed time management game but it is completely different from the others. Instead of grooming a pet, you are trying to sell them. However, you still need to feed each type of animal and clean their cages/tanks/pens. At the same time, you need to make sure you find the right pet for each customer. It sounds like there is a lot of work involved in playing this game. There isn't really. Your character doesn't move for the feeding and cleaning actions so there isn't time being wasted with her just wandering around the store. She only moves when she is preparing an animal for a customer. While this may seem like it's not a big deal, it is. Most games force the player's character to wander around the "game board" for every single action. This usually ends up making the player aggravated because the character doesn't move fast enough to fit everything in within the alloted time. Customers get angry because your character is busy in the corner feeding the fish or something. By allowing the feeding and cleaning to be done by the player without the character moving, the player can accomplish those tasks while the character is moving to a tank or cage to prepare an animal for the customer. We don't have to wait for the character to do something.

I did enjoy playing this game a lot. It's a slightly different take on the time management type of game but it makes all the right changes to keep it interesting and fun instead of aggravating.