Little Shop of Treasures

The Good
There's a good variety of screen layouts and objects (although a more focused game design, with you choosing a retail area to target, might've worked better).

The Bad
It's a pure memory-test. Game designers have been criticised for emphasizing memory elements in games for many years - the hazards you couldn't've predicted in platform games, the illogical puzzles you will die on once before clearing them in adventure games, football management games where only one tactical system works, and so on. Sadly, in Casual Game land, they don't seem to have realised this.

The whole thing is too slow-paced. 3 minutes to find 10-15 items is too long. Having less time but slightly less obscured items would have made the game much more thrilling. The hint drawings would be more useful if they are bit more in proportion.

I know there's a Blitz mode, but it takes a long time to unlock that. It's annoying enough when racing games lock most of the circuits until you've completed them, but this takes it to another level, as the Blitz mode could save the game.

The stock of the various shops is quite illogical - harmonicas for sale in a farm shop, onions in a gardening shop, and pretzels almost everywhere. That pretty much scuppers it as an educational tool.

The shop element could have been used more. If items had different values, or there was a time limit on each individual customer, you could decide which ones to focus on and which ones to sacrifice, a lá Burger Rush. The upgrades you choose could have had a direct effect on the business' custom - instead, you get a fixed 15 customers on each level.

The Bottom Line
This one falls short in every major area. It's too slow to be action, too superficial to be strategy, and too illogical to be educational. It's one of those games that you could only enjoy if you've never seen a major commercial game. No wonder there are no ingame credits, unlike virtually every other modern shareware game - I wouldn't want people to know that I was behind it.