Winkeltje LadiesGamers

Winkeltje: The Little Shop Review

Game: Winkeltje: The Little Shop
Genre: Simulation, Strategy
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam, (Windows) PlayStation & Xbox)
Developers | Publishers: Sassybot Games
Age Rating: US E | EU 3+
Price: US £14.99 | UK £11.29 | EU € 12,49
Release Date: April 22nd, 2022

Review code used, with many thanks to Video Games PR.

Winkeltje: The Little Shop is a simulation game from Dutch developers Sassybot Games. If, like me, you are wondering what Winkeltje means, it is Dutch for ” little shop” (thanks, Yvonne). So let’s have a look at the Little Shop.

Winkeltje LadiesGamers
Choose your difficulty

Run your own Shop

Winkeltje: The Little Shop runs on a very straightforward premise that any fans of the genre should be familiar with. As the story goes, you have been left a little shop and a mountain of debt, and you are tasked with clearing the Coopman family’s debt. You begin the game with a tiny, medieval shop, the debt, and a few coins in your pocket. You use those coins to set your shop up, sell items, and hopefully keep up with your ever-increasing debt payments; it’s game over if you don’t keep up with payments.

Winkeltje LadiesGamers
Start small

After picking your difficulty setting from relaxed to hard and customising your character, you can choose between a small shop or a larger shop layout to begin. Once you pick the size of your shop, your character can begin the business of selling. After a short tutorial to tell you the basics of running a medieval shop, you’re more or less left to get on with it. It’s not a difficult game to understand, so it doesn’t need continuous hand-holding for the player to enjoy it.

Winkeltje LadiesGamers
Order stock at the counter

Four walls, a Floor and a Door

You start with a simple shop, four walls, a floor and a door. Then, it is up to you to furnish the shop, sell your goods, and rake in some cash. In the beginning, you can purchase wooden tables to place your stock on and storage pallets to store the stock. Additionally, you are free to place the tables and decorate your shop how you see fit, but the nicer the shop looks, the more appeal it has to the customers.

Winkeltje LadiesGamers
Special events

The game features lots of different furniture options when it comes to furnishing. There are tables and display shelves, counters, storage pallets, and even crafting stations. The range of furniture is great, and there are various walls and floors to use. Depending on funds, you can even place doors, windows, or archways and design your shop layout.

Winkeltje LadiesGamers
Change the view of the shop by increasing wall size.

Make a Profit

The cash you earn from selling your stock can then be used to order more goods at the counter in your shop. You can also buy goods from the travelling salespeople that frequently visit your shop. The travelling salespeople stop by daily, and they offer different prices for the goods, meaning it’s usually cheaper to buy stock from them. There are seasonal changes that affect the prices and demands of goods. There are also events, such as Kings Day, where all the customers arrive in my shop wearing orange clothes ( as is customary in the Netherlands, Yvonne tells me!)

Winkeltje LadiesGamers
Expand the floors and walls.

Once you have established your shop, you eventually earn skill points which open up more of a range of items to sell in your shop. For example, gaining skill points allows you to farm vegetables, craft items, cook and sew. All the profits you make will allow you to expand your shop and buy fancier furnishings, decorations and crafting stations. Eventually, you can specialise in a particular item to sell, such as food, clothes or potions.

Winkeltje LadiesGamers
The start of my garden.

Relaxing Gameplay

One of the things you can’t tinker with in Winkeltje is the prices of the items you sell. Wood sells for whatever price wood sells for; I would have liked the option to change the prices. Stock moves in and out so quickly that you have to keep on top of it so the shelves don’t become empty. You can hire staff to help, but you must make enough money to pay them at the end of each day.

Winkeltje: The Little Shop is a pretty relaxing game, even as you try to make sure your shop is fully stocked. At the start of the game, you can only put out one of each item of stock you have to sell, so it keeps you busy keeping an eye on stock levels.

Winkeltje LadiesGamers
Special events

Expand your Shop and Specialise

When you have accumulated enough wealth, you can expand your shop: decide the shop’s floor plan and where to place doors, windows, or archways. You can increase the size of your store and make it more appealing, having all the items on sale and combining different wall and floor tiles to your heart’s desire.

The game plays reasonably well on the Nintendo Switch, though I found that if my character stood too close to the shop’s door and I accidentally hit the button, the shop would close for the day. When that happens, you miss a whole day of business and profits. Also, adding new walls or doors can be a little fiddly with the controls.

Winkeltje LadiesGamers
The shop has grown in size.

Conclusion

Winkeltje: The Little Shop is fun to play. It’s an enjoyable gameplay loop, open the shop in the morning, sell items, and close the shop at the end of the day. Once the shop is closed for the day, you can rearrange the stock and take care of the crops you are growing, ready for another business day. It can get repetitive if you play for long sessions. However, Winkeltje’s specialisation system does help to keep it feeling fresh and interesting.

Final Verdict: I Like It a Lot  I like it a lot

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