Cart Life Review

Cart Life is a simulation game where you play one of three street vendors. You attempt to run their shop whilst looking after their health, interests, and families. It has simple visuals, but depicts the realities of the thin-end of life.

Each character has a different stall. Vinny sells bagels, Andrus runs a newspaper stand, and Melanie sells coffee from a cart. You interact with customers to sell them items and can manage stock and set prices. You also need to look after your daily chores like shopping, cooking and sleep.

What starts as a technical challenge soon becomes more personal. You have unique situations to cope with. Melanie, for example, is a single mother of a daughter. She yearns to bond more with her daughter and because of work and life struggles to find time to walk her daughter to and from school each day.

It's a game that is challenging and difficult. But this is not to make you feel like a hero when you win. Instead, it aims to illustrate how hard life is when you don't have enough money, time or other people to help you. You can access Cart Life here.