Supermarket Times – A Fun Game Ruined by Crass, Uncomfortable Humour

“Forget about being world famous, it’s hard enough just getting the automatic doors at the supermarket to acknowledge your existence.” – Geoff Tibballs

Overview

Supermarket Times is a bizarre point-and-click game set in a hand-drawn supermarket full of strange products and even stranger people!

Note: This game features some extremely bad language as well as NSFW subjects, and themes.

Gameplay

Supermarket Times sees the player embark on a shopping trip, exploring the supermarket, perusing products and talking to fellow shoppers. The map, which can be viewed and used to fast travel, is fairly extensive for a short game and the variety of rooms is quite vast. While the player does not have any money or budget, they can add various items to their trolley which are often priced in Euros. The trolley can be viewed at any time which also allows a set of legendary tasks to be viewed. These include buying alcohol and cigarettes for minors, satisfying a toilet ghost and freeing a trio of eagles. Completing these is required in order to reach the game’s true ending rather than simply going to the checkout for a more casual finale. Legendary objectives, in addition to a small selection of achievements, add substance and purpose to what would otherwise feel like something of a sandbox game.

Narrative

Supermarket Times has a fairly basic overarching narrative that follows the player as they do their shopping. It is the extra objectives, achievements and encounters that enhance this and add extra story elements. There is a heavy dose of humour within the game, often mature in theme, and while some of it provokes laughter with real and obscure silliness, other ‘jokes’ seem designed simply to raise eyebrows. Sexual content, references to perverts and paedophiles, vague xenophobia, and thinly veiled judgements on various social groups feel unnecessary and crass. Such jokes do not advance the narrative, nor provide valuable commentary on such subjects and instead feel intentionally jarring and highly uncomfortable without being particularly funny.

Styling

Supermarket Times uses a distinct and vibrant hand-drawn art style that appears to be drawn with coloured pencils and felt tip pens. Some block colours and effects make it clear that at least some of the art is created digitally but this maintains a very simplistic feel akin to something created in MS Paint. The aesthetic stands out, and has a deliberately child-like feel to it, though there is plenty of detail and nuance to keep the visuals interesting.

The soundtrack is quite jovial and upbeat, with a vaguely retro feel to it. It would certainly fall into the category of background music, the sort of thing you might hear in an elevator or a shop without a music license! The sound effects are well implemented, and familiar, supermarket noises such as checkout beeping and tannoy announcements.

Upon inspecting various items around the shop a narrator will provide some information, this mostly occurs in a gruff, male voice from northern England and is designed to feel like an off-the-cuff commentary. There are a number of people in the supermarket that the player can talk to, these seem to be voiced by the same person using questionable (verging on offensive) attempts at different accents.

Summary

Supermarket Times is a fairly short game and can be completed in its entirety in less than 2 hours. It offers some fun point-and-click gameplay, satisfying puzzles, and kooky styling. The surreal and silly nature of the game is quite appealing, unfortunately, this is marred by ineffective and uneasy attempts at humour that seem simply designed to shock. The overall tone is quite immature, and while this works well for the hand-drawn and simplistic aesthetic, it does not sit well in terms of the so-called jokes. While NSFW content is not inherently problematic, Supermarket Times goes to extremes without purpose or much comedic value. The overall effect is muddled, confused, and disappointing, especially as the game had the potential to play on its unique and surreal vibes and bizarre but satisfying gameplay and actually be a really fun experience.

Looking for more strange and humourous games? You might also like these reviews:
Toilet Chronicles: Part 1 – A Bizarre Bathroom Adventure! – Pants Quest – Puzzles and Struggles in this Everyday Adventure – Disturbing Adventures in The Good Time Garden

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