Falafel Games is making its debut with its first title, GameStonk Simulator, where you must run a video game store. You need to do everything from buying stock, stocking shelves, serving people, and my personal favourite beating robbers with a baseball bat. 

You own and run GameStonk a little video game store and the first thing you need to do is order some stock and fill the shelves to make sure you can start selling some gaming items. At the start of each day, a stock truck will come where you are prompted with things you can purchase like new licenses for game sales, new hardware, or incentives like lower purchase prices for items that will increase profit margins. It’s not just smooth sailing as you have people who like doing the five-finger discount but you can get even with them. Each day will bring more customers and a higher store rating which is run off a five-star rating.  

The sounds made me laugh a few times when customers entered the store. Sometimes you got a random little hello, a random grunting noise, or a weird noise like they’re laughing, this is when you knew you were about to be robbed, and also right before I flogged them with a baseball bat. If you are not like me and blast Spotify whilst playing these styles of games the developers have you sorted, GameStonk Simulator has an in-game radio with different genres you can unlock each morning when the truck arrives. It would be nice if the developers could implement a way to turn the radio down to background noise levels instead of like it’s pumping at a concert.

The controls were straightforward which made jumping head first in and playing the game quite simplistic the movement was nice and smooth and running around opening boxes and stocking shelves was as simple as clicking and super responsive. I looked forward to each day having people trying to rob the store and smashing that SHIFT button and running down the sidewalk and smashing them with a baseball bat. Something about that was satisfying as heck. 

I was impressed with the graphics in this game and it was super fitting for the style of the game. It’s almost like a blocky pixel art style but with some cartoonish twists that make it feel fresh and fun and with its bright and vibrant colours, it is super enjoyable. The game covers were another highlight for me with how creative they were with the names, they made me chuckle more than once seeing them. I would have loved to see a few more textures put in to bring the game alive more, but that could all come in time seeing this is a demo. I would have loved to be able to turn off the on-screen prompts as the controls are not complex and I did not require it for the entire time.

I’m interested to see what the developers implement into the game at full release. I love the idea of the game and the parodies of popular titles added to the game to keep themselves out of trouble, but anyone who plays games would understand and know the titles as soon as they see them. 

Written by: Hayden Nelson