Having just come off the heels of reviewing Supermarket Mania 2 on the PC, I can say that Supermarket Mania on the DS sounds pretty darn good. Even with the DSi's little bitty speakers, the upbeat and fun theme music comes through loud and clear. You can hear piano, violin and some synth-y stuff too. It's quite excellent and enjoyable and I'm even listening to the menu music on my DSi as I write this.

While there isn't any voice acting, you do have a selection of sound effects that really get the point across and certain music kicks into gear when a celebrity visits the store. I love this little ditty and it's a great cue to let you know when you need to be on your toes, in case the celeb sneaks in without you noticing them. As for sound effects, there's a bell chime when a customer enters the store, and a loud and angry crash when you have exhausted a customer's patience and they throw their groceries to the ground before storming out. Nice little touches like this add a lot to the experience.

Everything looks good in Supermarket Mania and being able to distinguish items on a screen this small is critical. I remember Cake Mania 2 on the DS not being as good in this department and not being able to progress in the game because I couldn't tell one cake topper from the other. Here, you can tell exactly what the customer is looking for and, while the store sometimes gets crowded with a ton of customers, you can still easily get things done.

In Supermarket Mania, you play as Nikki, who gets a job at the Torg Corporation (where Mr. Torg wants to run everything with robotics), only to be fired unjustly, in lieu of robots performing her job. What's a girl to do? Well, she and her friend Wendy (also fired) band together and find Mr. Clarence, an elderly store owner who needs some young and energetic new blood to kick start his business.

There are 5 Stages, with each containing levels totaling 50 in all. You'll have customers ranging from the patient old lady to the average young woman, to the hurried yuppie and even the annoying teenaged girl who runs through your store, knocking things over and forcing you to clean up after her. You'll have visiting celebrities from time to time and they'll be super demanding and buy everything in a particular bin, so be sure to stay well stocked when you know they are coming. You'll even have thieves who come to steal your goods. Fortunately, you've got Officer Barefist standing by and if the teen girls get out of hand or you see a thief stealing, a simple tap on him and he'll blow the whistle, restoring order and, sometimes, getting your goods and some money back out of the thief. You can also shout at the microphone to get him to act. I had a cold while I was playing this game and my coughing had Barefist blowing his whistle a lot. It was kind of funny, actually.

The name of the game is pleasing your customers and you do this by keeping the shelves filled with merchandise and keeping the store clean. You can only fill so many shelves with a basketload of goods, so you'll have to run to the storeroom to reload, which takes time. Since you'll hear a bell when someone enters the store and you'll see a thought bubble above them with what they want to purchase, its a good strategy to wait to see what the first few customers want, fill those bins, then reload your basket, since all shelves start a level off empty.

As customers mill about, they spill things and Nikki has to pick them up and throw them away, but she can pick up several at once before dumping them off. If a customer sits too long waiting for you to refill a shelf, their patience runs out and their meter (which begins as a happy face) turns red and angry, they finally throw their items on the floor in a crash and huff and leave the store, costing you money and making you clean up after them. It's a really funny audio cue, but one you don't want to hear too often.

If you'd rather not play on Story Mode, there's also Endless Mode, were you simply last as long as you can. You can't buy upgrades, but rather they appear for you to click on and will be something temporary like all shelves being refilled or Super Shop, where the customers buy an entire shelf of whatever item, or a cup of coffee that makes Nikki super fast. Super Shop also shows up in Story Mode sometimes and eventually, you'll have the option to purchase the coffee machine in Story Mode as an upgrade to have for each level.

Supermarket Mania has just the right difficulty level. It ramps up slowly enough that you can keep up, but it becomes a true challenge as they add more and more thieves and teen girls to muck up the works. They might even have a certain level where everyone is buying candy or veggies and you have meta-goals to accomplish, like not losing a certain number of customers or not letting more than 2 thieves rob you. Overall, I found Supermarket Mania to be completely approachable and fun through the entire game. While it took me a few tries to beat the final level and I had to use just the right strategy, it can be done and, in fact, most levels can be easily completed on Expert level (which simply means you earned more money than the standard goal).

In Supermarket Mania, just about everything is accomplished with the tap of the stylus. You tap to fill the shelves, tap to direct Nikki to refill at the storeroom, tap to pick up garbage and tap to throw it away.

In between levels, you have the opportunity to purchase upgrades, but unlike the PC version, you only get one upgrade per item like shelf size, Nikki's basket or her ability to load the cart up quicker. You can, however, purchase a TV or better decor to increase patience or a gumball machine (which you then have to keep filled) to increase revenue.

By the time you get to the end of the 5th Stage, your store should be pretty chock-full of various goods and you'll have to stay on your toes to keep everyone satisfied, but Supermarket Mania is a game you'll want to not only see through to the end, but to play after the fact as well, to increase your score and get Expert on every level.

I did experience a series of glitches on Level 7 of Stage 4. While at the end of the level, I still had a teen girl customer in the store. She was hovering at a shelf, not buying anything or moving and although the bell had sounded indicating the store was closed, she wouldn't budge. The level couldn't end because she was still in the store, so I had to reboot the DSi. When I tried that level again, during the Visiting Celebrity portion of the level, the celeb didn't actually enter the store, but their theme song played and everyone continued to mill about the store. When the song ended, the celeb breezed through and just walked out the checkout area, never stopping at a shelf. It was odd. However, a reboot cured both issues and I never saw any other problems.

Even with these minor issues, based on this experience and my recent outing with Supermarket Mania 2 on the PC, I am rapidly becoming a huge fan of G5 Entertainment. If you like Time Management games and want to take the fun on the go, I highly recommend you download Supermarket Mania.