Seeing this at Tiny Teams 2025, I felt that Discounty was a game I wanted to play. With it releasing a week after Tiny Teams ended, I didn’t want to have both first impressions of the demo and experiences of the full release. So my thoughts on what Crinkle Cut Games have delivered come now it is out. And it is an enjoyable time working this supermarket while trying to stay friendly with the locals.

Unlike other games where I’ve inherited a business from a relative who has died, Aunt Tellar is very much alive. And has ideas for expanding the shop. The first of which I learn of during the bus ride into Blomkest. From a news segment on the radio, a Discounty supermarket is to open there. So once I arrive, she shows me the shop that will become the Discounty supermarket I will run.

Already there’s mystery surrounding the town. The forest is closed, being investigated for a hazardous fog that seems to have settled there. Sheep are found all across the town, with a tree blocking access to the farm. And the council representative for the town, Elmer, seems to only care about things that personally affect him. A very nice neighbourhood to move to, then.

Across the first few days, store worker Grace will introduce the various facets of running the business. Placing the shelves and coolers, ordering stock and placing it, serving the customers and how that affects business. Along with recycling of empty boxes, cleaning the store, and the rewards system that offers up new stock and a few extras for the store to buy. That rewards system comes in very helpful for one particular item that gets introduced at a later time.

Serving customers to start with requires knowing the prices of each item. Fortunately, the serving screen has both notebook and till open at the same time, so it is simply a case of navigating to the page that item is on to find its price. Enter it in, multiplying if there’s more than one of an item, then confirming it. With an extra confirmation to check that customer out. An easy controlling system, but with each number represented by a stick direction, it can be fiddly when trying to check items out quickly.

Which is why the scanner is such a great upgrade. The notebook and needing to enter prices is now gone. Instead, each item type is represented by a direction on the stick. As each item appears above the scanner, use the stick to rotate the item to where the barcode is and scan. A highlight also appears on each item to show where the barcode is, making the process a lot easier to manage. Especially when there’s a high number of customers in the shop.

In general, the shop is where most of my time is spent, though there’s a good amount away from it. The story, of upgrading the shop and the mysteries of Blomkest, are told in the various areas of this town. A story which involves such things as helping a few locals to gain and upgrade trade deals with them. Such deals provide other items to sell, with a reward system for each gaining perks such as reducing the buying price and being able to buy more from them for reaching sales goals of their products.

The residents are a great bunch to talk to, each with a varied personality. Some residents feel ties to the town, wanting to preserve its history despite its general decline. Ms. Andersen, for example, is an old lady very loyal to the town and its history. Others hold less respect for that history, such as the factory owner Tammy. Through interacting with each of the residents as events unfold, how they feel about the town and its history can be seen.

Discounty has a lovely charm with its pixel art, with the animations looking very smooth. One particular thing I enjoy is how my character’s hair looks as though it bounces as I run. The art does a great job of showing the contrast between the old declining town and the well-kept parts of it, which includes the park on its south side. No need to guess what area of the town its representative really likes.

I’m very much enjoying the experience of Discounty, then. The core shopkeeping of the game is fun, offering a nice management simulation. The mysteries on offer with the story give a drive to keep working the shop and completing tasks to reveal them. And though there’s a few small issues, including a few grammatical errors with the text, they don’t dull the greatness of what’s on offer. As such, Discounty gets an easy recommendation from me.

Images Taken From:
Discounty | Nintendo Switch 2 [Docked / Handheld]