Review: Mega Mall Story

[Content Note: Ads]

Mega Mall Story
by Kairosoft

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Considering that the last time I was laid up for any length of time, I ended up writing a FAQ for Cafe Nippon, it shouldn't come as any surprise to me that I was seized with the same urge to break Mega Mall Story into tiny little pieces for min-maxing purposes when my desktop and laptop both stopped working in the same week. If you're just tuning into this series, Kairosoft makes "spreadsheet games" (or so Husband calls them as he sniffs over his Diablo-clones, heh.) for Android and Apple and oh my I love them so.

Mega Mall Story has you creating... wait for it... your own mall. With butchers and cinemas and bookstores and cafeterias and helicopter pads. I would live in this mall, were I not a renowned introvert who hates ambient noise. Which makes it all the more awesome that I can play this game without leaving the comfort of my home or, indeed, without needing any internet at all. (Minus the internet it took to install the game in the first place.)

@ Google Play

And now let's break this game open. The base game itself is pretty self-explanatory, like most Kairosoft games. The devil is always in the details. So here's a quick breakdown and then we'll talk more in depth:

1. Hold Sales often and effectively.
2. Prioritize getting new customers with investments over early expansion.
3. Create regulars as quickly as you can.
4. Spend money like it's going out of style (ads, investments, new stores, expansion).
5. Conserve hearts like a miser.

Hold Sales
It took me awhile to realize this, but the Hold Sales action is your most powerful tool in this game, once you acquire it at Store Rank 3. Holding a sale might seem wasteful because it costs 10 hearts, but it's almost the only way to earn hearts, and it's the only way to herd customers to their stores so that they can become regulars. The hardest regular in the game to earn is Bearington (I haven't been able to earn him) because he is only satisfied by a facility (the Fountain) and you can't hold sales at facilities. Everyone else? Easy peasy once you know the trick.

Earning Hearts: Month 8 and Month 12 are "sales months". When you hold a sale in a "sale month", your popularity goes up a variable amount (depending largely on the economy). On the first day of those months, you should use as many hearts as it takes to build your popularity up to a frenzy. The frenzy will last most of the month, but there will be a few short days near the end of the month when the frenzy will be over -- use those days to trigger a second frenzy with all the hearts you just earned. This pattern of four guaranteed frenzies a year (two per sales month, and with hopefully one or two more frenzies by using all available advertisements and being wise about when you accrue popularity through Story Events) should have you rolling in all the hearts you need.

Popularity: Note that popularity is one of the most important things in the game, since it ultimately earns hearts via frenzies. Always buy (with money) as many advertisements as you have available. Hire good people as they come available through expansions, rather than leaving a floor empty. Do not place any buildings during a frenzy nor earn popularity through other means during a frenzy (if you can avoid it), since that popularity will be wasted. Several game events such as ranking up the mall and/or building unique buildings (cinema, planetarium, bus stop, etc.) may end up being featured in the mall news with a corresponding boost in popularity; plan these events to your advantage.

Herding Customers: Each customer has an ideal Specific Shop + Quality baseline that they need to visit to become a regular, but the customers won't knowingly beeline to their preferred shop. But you can use the Hold Sales action to herd the customer to their favorite store so that they can become a regular. Ideally, you want to do this as soon as they arrive because (a) regulars walk faster and spend more, (b) the bigger the mall, the less likely your customer is to bump into your store, and (c) the bigger the crowds of people, the more likely the store is to sell out during a sale before your slower-walking customer gets there. When holding sales during the "sales month", you shouldn't be choosing stores at random; you should be picking the stores that correspond to non-regular customers.

Rival Malls: Every so often a Rival Mall will open and suck your customers away. (Beat them over time by holding frenzies.) Which customers are using the Rival Mall will change from month to month -- use this to your advantage. On the first day of every month, check the Info → Customers dialogue and identify which non-regular customers are coming for the day. Then hold sales for their shops and hope that the smaller crowds will prevent an early sell-out.

Maximizing Sales: At the end of the year, there's a contest to see which store made the most profit -- you get a cash prize and (when you hit #1 for the country) a Casino for winning. A good way to achieve this early is to use the Hold Sales every month for a high quality / high price store like the Planetarium. After selling out for 12 months in a row, you should be a shoo-in for the prize. (If not, use hearts to increase the stock and quality of the store.)

Leveling Stores: Each store levels up naturally after a certain number of customers has been reached. (Customer numbers accrue even while a store is waiting to level up; it is possible to level up a store twice in a row -- one right after the other -- if you wait long enough. I have verified this on high speed play.) If a store is just barely under the quality necessary to satisfy a customer, you can boost that quality temporarily with a same-floor facility, or you can use the Hold Sales option to herd customers to the store and level it up faster. It is often cheaper in hearts to use sales to level up a store than to use hearts to gamble on the difficult-to-get power ups. A note on leveling stores: Do not use a one-size-fits-all approach to dividing the points between quality and quantity. If a store is at the needed quality for a non-regular, but keeps selling out, then it needs a quantity boost; if the store is below the required quality, then boost the quality as needed.

Hearts
Let's talk about hearts. Hearts are so important. You use them to buy new stores. You use them to hold sales. You use them to power up stores. Hearts are your friend. You will basically never have enough hearts (although by the end game you'll have quite a few if you follow this guide).

For the first several years, you'll want to be miserly with hearts. Spend them as needed in order to trigger your four sales-month-frenzies. Then in Month 1 you can spend the resulting surplus on stores, but only ones that you need to build right away in order to make regulars. From Month 1 to Month 8, your job is to accrue enough hearts to get you through your four frenzies all over again.

Do not power up stores willy-nilly. The only stores you want to power up are stores that aid your goals, either the one store (Planetarium, Supermarket, etc.) that is getting you the year-end bonus or the stores needed to make regulars. Check the chart or your notes -- if the Plaza doesn't earn any regulars, then it doesn't need to be powered up until you're in an actual near-end-game surplus. Stores that cater to non-regulars will probably need a minor Stock Up (usually 5 points) and may need a minor Quality Up (usually 5 points). If you stack bonuses correctly with floor placement and combos, you usually won't need to pay for the expensive and difficult-to-get power ups.

Customers
Customers are very easy to figure out, once you understand the lingo. Each customer in the Info → Customers list has a dialogue. Here's an example:

What this means is that for this customer to be a regular, she has to visit a specific shop (in this case a Pet Shop) and that specific shop needs to have a store quality of 40 (or more) in order to be satisfied. Nothing else in your mall matters to this customer, except in so much as the other things affect the quality of the store. Things that affect store quality include compatibility with the floor number, possible combos with surrounding stores, and the employee who manages that floor and hir compatibility with the floor type.

Spreadsheets
Now we come to the spreadsheet part of the min-maxed spreadsheet game. You can find a full shared version of all this data at Google Docs here.

Perfect Mall Layout: Here is a semi-perfect mall layout (or so I believe) that I put together with help from d_senti at GameFaqs and Virtual Alex at DeviantArt. (I really very strongly recommend accessing the layout from the Google Docs link above, which also contains an explanation of the floor/combo bonuses and why the layout is what it is.

Customers: Here is a list of customers who visit the mall, what number they are, where they live, what investment brings them to the mall, what trigger (if any) makes them available, what store can satisfy them, and what reward they give when they become a regular.

People	Number	Location	Job	Trigger	Satisfied	Reward
Amy Jones	1	Residential	–	–	Supermarket	Lenny Ling
Ken Hayes	2	Office	–	–	Rest Area	$100,000
Cletus Mann	3	Park	–	–	Supermarket	Toy Display
May Gomez	4	Residential	[Waiter]	arrives with Jim Maxwell	Toy Store	Duke Higgs
Jim Maxwell	5	Residential	[Waiter]	Cafe	Cafe	$100,000
Kent Dellan	6	Office	[Executive]	Rest Area	Payphones	Seafood St.
Ryu Honda	7	Office	[Executive]	arrives with Kent Dellan	Cafeteria / Fast Food	$200,000
Pablo P	8	Park	[Waitress]	arrives with Blondie Cay	Vending M./Rest Area	Leafy Plant
Serena Lam	9	Residential	[Osteopath]	arrives with Ben Donner	Clothing St.	Butcher
Ben Donner	10	Residential	[Osteopath]	–	Rest Area	$200,000
Mabel Smith	11	Office	[Secretary]	Home Goods	Home Goods	Keith Wardon {Hire}
Gordon G	12	Office	[Secretary]	arrives with Mabel Smith	Fountain	CD Store
Blondie Cay	13	Park	[Waitress]	Supermarket	Supermarket	$100,000
Dan Green	14	Residential	[Designer]	arrives with Max Clay	Cafeteria	Ticket Outlet
Max Clay	15	Residential	[Designer]	–	Clothing St.	$100,000
Jeeves	16	Office	[Butler]	–	Arcade	Gil Bates
Hana Burger	17	Office	[Butler]	arrives with Jeeves	Observation / Arcade	$100,000
Bunny Ford	18	Park	[Maid]	arrives with Pam Daily	Seafood St.	Jen Collins
Scoop Dodd	19	Residential	[Journalist]	Greengrocer	Bookstore	$300,000
Jack Hayes	20	Office	[Musician]	arrives with Yoyo Ha	Ticket Outlet	Indy Smith
Yoyo Ha	21	Office	[Musician]	Cafe	Cafe	Toy Store
Pam Daily	22	Park	[Maid]	–	Bakery	$100,000
Sneezy Hays	23	Residential	[Cameraman]	–	Florist	Shoe Store
Tam Bruise	24	Residential	[Cameraman]	arrives with Sneezy Hays	Boutique / Clothing St.	$100,000
Dave Kato	25	Office	[Programmer]	–	Toy Store	Karen Heller
Jay Hooks	26	Park	[Fisherman]	–	CD Store	Arnie Swan
Soupy Dorn	27	Residential	[Soccer Plyr]	arrives with Dave Beck	Chinese Bfft.	$100,000
Dave Beck	28	Residential	[Soccer Plyr]	–	Cinema	$100,000
Ray Coffer	29	Office	[Gentleman]	–	Butcher	Robin Froe
Alice Bee	30	Office	[Gentleman]	arrives with Ray Coffer	Candy Store	$100,000
Ann Yuill	31	Park	[Fisherman]	arrives with Jay Hooks	Art Store	Mark Sans
Clementine	32	Residential	[Comic Artist]	–	Bookstore	$100,000
Shay Crock	33	Office	[Singer]	arrives with Mic Jackson	Cake Store	Hair Salon
Mic Jackson	34	Office	[Singer]	–	Shoe Store	Claire Lune
Jamie Lee	35	Park	[Nurse]	Clothing St.	Clothing St.	Art Store
Ronald Day	36	Residential	[Student]	arrives with Tiger Hoods	Fast Food	$100,000
Tiger Hoods	37	Residential	[Student]	–	Game Store	Stationary
Caesar Murn	38	Office	[Celebrity]	–	Supermarket	Lottery Shop
Betsy Fay	39	Park	[Cheerleader]	–	Cafeteria	Fortune Teller
Jim Franks	40	Park	[Cheerleader]	–	Dollar Store	Drugstore
Mick Roony	41	Residential	[Doctor]	arrives with Andy Mays	Stationary	Ginny Love
Andy Mays	42	Residential	[Doctor]	Clinic	Clinic	Stereo Shop
Cat Kidman	43	Office	[Chef]	arrives with Poppy Smith	Clothing St.	Karaoke
Poppy Smith	44	Office	[Chef]	–	PC Store	Mobile Shop
Festus Kay	45	Park	[Swimmer]	arrives with Jenny Sein	Steakhouse	Locksmith
Jenny Sein	46	Park	[Swimmer]	–	Conv. Store	Gourmet Deli
Crystal Mann	47	Residential	[Teacher]	–	Boutique	Camera Store
Sarah Hong	48	Office	[Astronaut]	–	Appliances	Plaza
Sister Mary	49	Park	[Nun]	–	Fancy Bistro	Cosmetics
Toby Pots	50	Park	[Nun]	arrives with Sister Mary	Sushi Bar	Nail Salon
Dick Bando	51	Residential	[Consultant]	–	Hair Salon	Lucy Naiman
Miso Hisoda	52	Office	[Critic]	–	Video Rental	Glasses
Clem Danes	53	Park	[Folk Singer]	arrives with Mary Moon	Lottery Shop	Ray Keys
Butch Pitt	54	Residential	[Stuntman]	–	Jeweler	Watch Store
Venus Winn	55	Office	[Debugger]	Fortune Teller	Fortune Teller	Pumpkin 1
Mary Moon	56	Park	[Folk Singer]	–	Sushi Bar	Japanese Food
King Ackbar	57	Park	[Young CEO]	Game Store	Game Store	$1,500,000
Porky Feeny	58	Residential	[Farmer]	–	Bowling Alley	Exhibit Area
Mary Cats	59	Office	[Saleswoman]	arrives with May Bee	Spa	Chandelier
May Bee	60	Office	[Saleswoman]	–	Gourmet Deli	Chipman Z
Mocha Latte	61	Park	[Young CEO]	arrives with King Ackbar	Fancy Bistro	ATM
Hen Penny	62	Residential	[Ninja]	arrives with Nekomaru	Casino	20 Popularity
Nekomaru	63	Residential	[Ninja]	Pet Store	Pet Store	Bar
Hulk Grogan	64	Office	[Wrestler]	Video Rental	Video Rental	Chairman
Cindy Gray	65	Park	[Housewife]	Jeweler	Jeweler	Real Estate
Ducky Bills	66	Residential	[Osteopath]	Furniture	Furniture	Lingerie Shop
Jed Quacks	67	Residential	[Osteopath]	arrives with Ducky Bills	Pet Store	$500,000
Kettler UFO	68	Office	[Negotiator]	Bowling Alley	Bowling Alley	Betting Shop
Kairobot	69	Park	[Myst. Robot]	Lingerie Shop	Lingerie Shop	Sally Prin
Manny Cave	70	Park	[Myst. Robot]	arrives with Kairobot	Real Estate	30 Popularity
Jen Collins	71	Park	–	Bunny Ford	Clothing St.	30 Popularity
Mark Sans	72	Park	–	Ann Yuill	Cafeteria	$500,000
Karen Heller	73	Park	–	Dave Kato	Dollar Store	Bearington
Claire Lune	74	Park	–	Mic Jackson	Boutique	$500,000
Ray Keys	75	Park	–	Clem Danes	PC Store	$500,000
Bearington	76	Park	–	Karen Heller	Fountain	Concert Hall (??)
Duke Higgs	77	Residential	–	May Gomez	Steakhouse	$500,000
Indy Smith	78	Residential	–	Jack Hayes	Conv. Store	$500,000
Gil Bates	79	Residential	–	Jeeves	Arcade	$500,000
Lucy Naiman	80	Residential	–	Dick Bando	Appliances	50 Hearts
Arnie Swan	81	Residential	–	Jay Hooks	Fancy Bistro	30 Popularity
Lenny Ling	82	Office	–	Amy Jones	Pet Store	50 Hearts
Sally Prin	83	Office	–	Kairobot	Exhibit Area	Museum
Chipman Z	84	Office	–	May Bee	Greengrocer	$5,000,000
Robin Froe	85	Office	–	Ray Coffer	Sushi Bar	30 Popularity
Ginny Love	86	Office	–	Mick Roony	Furniture	30 Popularity
Pumpkin 1	87	Office	–	Venus Winn	Bowling Alley	30 Popularity
Chairman	88	Office	–	Hulk Grogan	Spa	30 Popularity

Shops: Here is a list of shops available to build at the mall, how many hearts they cost to purchase from the in-game store (if any), the star ranking your mall needs in order to be available at the store, the size of the shop, the cost to place the shop, and what satisfied customer gives the shop to you (if applicable).

Name	Heart Cost	Stars	Size	Cost	Given By...?
Appliance	100	4	4	$400,000	–
Aquarium	200	3	4	$1,200,000	–
Arcade	80	3	3	$300,000	–
Art Store	–	–	2	$60,000	Jamie Lee
ATM	–	–	1	$500,000	Mocha Latte
Bakery	0	0	2	$25,000	–
Betting Shop	–	–	4	$500,000	Kettler UFO
Bookstore	60	0	4	$120,000	–
Boutique	60	2	2	$250,000	–
Bowling Alley	160	5	3	$400,000	–
Butcher	–	–	2	$40,000	Serena Lam
Cafe	0	0	2	$25,000	–
Cafeteria	40	2	3	$80,000	–
Cake Store	20	1	2	$40,000	–
Camera Store	–	–	3	$150,000	Crystal Mann
Candy Store	20	0	2	$10,000	–
Casino	–	–	4	$2,000,000	#1 Sales
CD Store	–	–	3	$60,000	Gordon G
Chandelier	–	–	1	$450,000	Mary Cats
Chinese Bfft	40	0	3	$50,000	–
Cinema	0	0	4	$300,000	–
Clinic	120	2	3	$500,000	–
Clothing St.	50	1	3	$90,000	–
Conv. Store	80	3	2	$180,000	–
Cosmetics	–	–	3	$100,000	Sister Mary
Dollar Store	50	2	3	$50,000	–
Drugstore	–	–	3	$100,000	Jim Franks
Exhibit Area	–	–	4	$300,000	Porky Feeny
Fancy Bistro	80	5	3	$250,000	–
Fast Food	40	1	3	$80,000	–
Florist	0	0	2	$35,000	–
Fortune Teller	–	–	1	$60,000	Betsy Fay
Fountain	40	3	1	$50,000	–
Furniture St.	120	5	4	$300,000	–
Game Store	40	1	2	$80,000	–
Glasses	–	–	2	$180,000	Miso Hisoda
Gourmet Deli	–	–	2	$120,000	Jenny Sein
Greengrocer	0	0	2	$10,000	–
Hair Salon	–	–	3	$80,000	Shay Crock
Home Goods	0	0	2	$75,000	–
Japanese Food	–	–	3	$180,000	Mary Moon
Jeweler	120	4	2	$500,000	–
Karaoke	–	–	3	$100,000	Cat Kidman
Leafy Plant	–	–	1	$20,000	Pablo P
Lingerie Shop	–	–	3	$250,000	Ducky Bills
Lockers	15	1	1	$15,000	–
Locksmith	–	–	1	$150,000	Festus Kay
Lottery Shop	–	–	1	$50,000	Caesar Murn
Mobile Shop	–	–	2	$120,000	Poppy Smith
Museum	–	–	4	$900,000	Sally Prin
Nail Salon	–	–	2	$120,000	Toby Potts
Payphones	0	0	1	$10,000	–
PC Store	90	2	3	$350,000	–
Pet Store	60	4	3	$150,000	–
Plaza	–	–	3	$300,000	Sarah Hong
Real Estate	–	–	3	$600,000	Cindy Gray
Rest Area	10	0	1	$15,000	–
Restroom	10	0	1	$20,000	–
Seafood St.	–	–	2	$30,000	Kent Dellan
Service Counter	120	1	2	$350,000	–
Shoe Store	–	–	2	$80,000	Sneezy Hays
Spa	160	5	3	$400,000	–
Stationary	–	–	3	$80,000	Tiger Hoods
Steakhouse	60	3	3	$90,000	–
Stereo Shop	–	–	2	$80,000	Andy Mays
Supermarket	0	0	4	$150,000	–
Sushi Bar	100	5	2	$250,000	–
Ticket Outlet	–	–	1	$30,000	Dan Gree
Toy Display	–	–	1	$20,000	Cletus Mann
Toy Store	–	–	3	$80,000	Yoyo Ha
Vending M.	0	0	1	$10,000	–
Video Rental	80	4	3	$150,000	–
Watch Store	–	–	2	$200,000	Butch Pitt

Combos: Here is a list of combos available to build at the mall, and which stores make up the combo.

Name	Store 1	Store 2	Store 3
Breakfast	Bakery	Leafy Plant	Cafe
Celebrity	Jewelry	Casino	Chandelier
Convenience	Conv. Store	Dollar Store	Drug Store
Crowd	Chinese Buffet	Rest Area	Bookstore
Date	Rest Area	Aquarium	Cinema
Dreams	Lottery Shop	Fortune Tllr	Ticket Outlet
Electronics	PC Store	Appliances	Mobile Shop
Entertainment	Bowling Alley	Arcade	Lockers
Fashion	Shoe Store	Clothing Store	Boutique
Fun	Arcade	Game Store	Video Rental
Gentlemen	Shoe Store	Watch Store	Glasses
Girls	Florist	Cake Shop	Clothing St.
Grocery	Gourmet Deli	Cake Shop	Supermarket
Holiday	Planetarium	Museum	Aquarium
Jewelry	Home Goods	Furniture Store	Jeweler
Kids	Toy Display	Candy Store	Vending Machine
Laid Back	Payphones	Vending Machine	Rest Area
Living	Supermarket	Service C	Payphones
Luxury	Casino	Aquarium	Cinema
Model	Hair Salon	Nail Salon	Cosmetics
Neighbors	Butcher	Greengrocer	Seafood Store
Pleasure	Bowling Alley	Karaoke Club	Steakhouse
Relaxation	Rest Area	Fountain	Vending Machine
Scenery	Bar	Fancy Bistro	Observation Deck
Seniors	Sushi Bar	Camera Store	Spa
Snacks	Fast Food	Chinese Buffet	Cafeteria
Sound	CD Store	Stereo Shop	Video Rental
Theater	Stereo Shop	Video Rental	Cinema
Toys	Toy Display	Toy Store	Game Store
Wisdom	Bookstore	Service C	ATM

Pictures
Pictures of most of the customers, the index of customers, and the store combos can be viewed on my Picasa album here.


Scoring
The final game score breaks down as the sum of the following factors:

• Money at End Game divided by 1,000. A final end game balance of $269,351,400 will result in 269,351 points. Note that this counts only the money balance at the end, and not a sum of all money accrued.

• Number of Regular Customers multiplied by 1,000. A final end game number of 87 regulars will result in 87,000 points.

• Total Visitors Accrued Over Game multiplied by 10. A final end game sum of 10,693 visitors will result in 106,930 points. Note that the sooner you acquire a guest, the more times they can visit.

• Total Hearts Accrued Over Game multiplied by 10. A final end game sum of 11,756 hearts will result in 117,560 points. Note that this counts all hearts accrued, regardless of whether they were spent.

• Number of Stores Unlocked multiplied by 1,000. A final end game number of 79 stores will result in 79,000 points.

...And I think that's about it for this review-slash-FAQ. Enjoy!