Game: Silver Screen Story
Genre: Study, Other, Simulation, Strategy
System: Nintendo Switch
Developers | Publishers: Kairosoft
Price: US $14.00 | UK £11.69| EU €13,00
Age Rating: US E | UK 3+
Release Date: January 14, 2021
Much thanks to Kairosoft for the review code!
Anyone who’s ever spent any time with me at all knows that I LOVE going to the movies. One of the toughest parts of this pandemic on my social health has been not being able to go to a movie every couple of weeks with my friends. Also, having worked nearly ten years in movie theaters, I’m always intrigued by games that simulate any part of the film industry. With this set of interests, I jumped at the chance to review Silver Screen Story. Let’s see how I liked it!
Story
You run a movie studio. That means you’re responsible for building the sets. Hiring the directors, staff, and actors. Deciding on genres and marketing. Making sure there are enough facilities to keep your staff happy and trained. As you progress in the game and your movies become more famous, don’t forget to set up a gift shop, hotel, and restaurant for the people who come to tour your studio. You will build your movie empire for the next 20 years, collecting awards along the way, with the goal of leveling up your studio to five stars.
Gameplay
This title features some pretty basic gameplay. Lots of point-and-click elements to operate your world. Your primary goal is to make high-quality films and build out your studio lot, but you need to do all that within your available funds. You can also train your staff and actors, which increases their skill levels and gives you money. Different building types provide different benefits such as money, training, or increasing the likelihood of aura.
I wish the game had explained the aura better, but basically it means that the character with the glowing light around them is able to produce better work. A player would be wise to check for staff and actors in this state when they’re hiring for a new production.
I also found myself not understanding the film leveling system very well. When you set up the genre and themes, it will tell you after you start the production if it’s a good combo (and there are wikis that tell you what combos are best), but there are also loads of individual elements to level up and I didn’t follow those very well.
In short, I would’ve appreciated a slightly more detailed introduction to gameplay.
Events
This is where this title gets a little shaky for me. This game relies heavily on pop-up events that you can’t skip through quickly. For example: If your movie gets nominated for an award, you must attend that ceremony RIGHT NOW. Although there is a skip button, it only skips in small segments. I very much found myself wishing there were a way to skip straight to the results of the entire segment.
When combined with the fact that as the game progresses your studio lot can be very sprawling, I found this gameplay element to be highly irritating. You can arrive at the spot you wanted to be on the lot after quite a bit of scrolling, be about to click on something you wanted to do, and suddenly find out you’ve been nominated again, or that the music composer is ready to work (a scene that has no skip option at all). Basically, if you find yourself annoyed by dungeon crawlers where you can’t see the enemy you need to fight until it has popped up in front of you, consider that you may be irritated by this aspect of the game.
Even without the pop-ups, this game is very busy with updates everywhere on the screen. Just be aware of that as well.
Odds & Ends
I’m not sure if the sprites are always supposed to be exactly what they appear as, or just in costumes. I know I can hire actual aliens and ghosts (which is fun!) but I find it hard to believe I’m hiring 10 copies of Santa. If they are supposed to be costume choices, just be aware that at least one of them is no longer considered okay (using a culture’s distinct clothing as a prop by people not of that culture.)
This game uses a very nonsensical naming scheme. It’s amusing, but I had a situation where the movie title randomizer spit out symbols that the game wouldn’t allow me to use. I had to change the title to exclude those characters before I could accept the title. It seems odd for the randomizer to break the game’s own rules, but it’s a minor issue. You can also name movies, actors, and staff yourself.
After you play through the game once you can start again with a plus option that lets you start with some advantages based on your performance in the previous round played.
Art and Music
This is one game where I turned the music off. The music annoyed me quite a bit after a while as it is very repetitive. It’s certainly not a game that needs music so that was fine.
The characters are cute little sprites. The style put me in mind of some simulation games I played on my cell phone about 10 years ago. This style is perfect for this type of simulation game, and for the most part I enjoyed seeing who wandered across my screen that I might be able to hire.
Conclusion
I went back and forth on this one for a bit. It can be a bit dull until you get a lot of buildings going, and the constant interruptions that you can’t delay or skip entirely can be annoying. Ultimately, the charm of running my own movie studio won out and I am pleased to give this game a thumb’s up.
Final Verdict: I Like It!
