Hotel Giant DS Review

Platform: Nintendo 3DS

My Playtime: 10+ hours

Genre: Simulation

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

In ‘Hotel Giant,’ as a budding new manager of a small hotel, your talents for success does not go unnoticed.  A hotel magnate offers you a job to manage his chain of hotels.  As you beat his objectives, more promotions, better hotels come your way.  However, there is someone who is out to sabotage you.  Can you still beat the odds of creating a 5-star hotel?
 

The objectives of the game are simple.  Each hotel has their own requirements for success.  For example - keeping a certain number of clients for a certain amount of days.  Or earning a profit for a certain amount of days.  Then, each hotel has a certain type clientele that they cater to.  Like, businesspeople, tourists, stars and so on.  How do you make them happy?  Your job is pretty much is to add rooms to your hotel and manage the money you have.  Do you need more guest rooms or is a shop better for earning more revenue?  Should you upgrade rooms?
 

You can adjust how much rooms cost.  You can change how the rooms look.  You can also add housekeeping, security and repairmen.  However, adding staff costs you money.  The extra staff becomes very important as you progressed.  There will be a point where you get to clean, fix or remove spy devices from rooms as there becomes more guests.  At the beginning, I was able to go floor to floor and fix everything on my own.  Then there was just too many problems that I had to cave and hire more people.  It was worth the dip in cash.  Money carries over to the next hotel.  You will always go in the red for the first few days.  The game will only allow you to be in $10,000 in debt.  People will always be unhappy for the few days as well.  As soon as you add more amenities, they will get happier and bring more guests.  It became formulaic after a while.  The first time playing I was frustrated.  I didn’t understand what they wanted.  I got reprimanded for not having enough rooms for a convention.  I had to figure out what button did what and figure out the balance of earning money and adding/improving more rooms.  There are tutorials but they are so long and grueling that I didn’t absorb what was being said.
 

There are a few different modes.  Career is the actual storyline.  There are 15 hotels you will manage that increases with difficulty.  Mission allows you to repeat a mission that you have already completed.  Random allows to replay any hotel unlocked in career mode and allows you adjust your goals.  The graphics are pretty decent for a simulation game.  You are never named.  The other characters are flat 2D images that have shifty eyes.  The hotel is like a blueprint that is separated by floors.  You never leave the hotel.  The rooms are pretty clear.  You can only see from one angle but allowed to move the camera left or right.  It is kind of funny when you can see your guest sitting on the toilet in their room’s and then frustrated.  There is no voice acting and the BGM is pretty generic but became catchy after listening to it for so long.
 

One technical thing.  I was playing the game on my 3DS.  There were 2 times that the game crashed for no particularly reason.  And one other time when I left my 3DS on when I was out shopping.  The game froze and the game system started to overheat.  This has never happened before.  I closed the system and reopened a few minutes later.  Everything was fine.  I don’t know if it was just my cartridge but be aware and save often.  One other note.  Saving was confusing on the 3DS.  You can only save after finishing a day.  There are two save slots.  Touch a face, hit ‘A’, then save.  And make sure you did save.  I made the mistake twice and had to repeat days.

Lately, I have been into management simulation games.  I guess I want that source of power or thinking I could do better.  I really like the game.  It was exactly what I expected.  The only reason I gave it 4 stars was because the game could've been streamlined better.  The career mode was pretty lengthy and I think I spent over 10 hours.  It was definitely worth the price.  If you are into simulation games, give it a try.  Once you get the hang of it, it was an addictive game.  It was fun.  It’s not for everyone.  It can be a bit redundant near the end but I find it was a good, relaxing way to pass the time at a decent price.