Little Shopping is one of the few simple educational games aimed at children available on the Nintendo Switch eShop.

I suppose the App Store can’t have complete dominion over the clickable, time-wasting titles to keep kids occupied, or maybe even pacify them. The premise of Little Shopping is simple enough. Players pick from one of four stores and shop for clothes, food, or even wild animals.

Each visit to the store is paired with a shopping list, which challenges kids to identify items and drag them into their shopping baskets. Then, they must drag them along a scanner in front of a cashier – think self-checkout. Then, the challenging part comes: paying the bill. A price is presented and the player can pay with three different coin denominations: five, two, and one. Once the precise change is given, the level resets back to the main street where the player can pick another store and start the whole adventure all over again.

I suppose Little Shopping counts as educational if you’re trying to help someone under the age of eight learn coin denominations, but there’s little else that will provide either challenge or gratification. The presentation is at least a little charming – it smacks of early ‘90s PC games aimed at the same audiences. Unlike Math Blaster and Treasure Mathstorm, the novelty doesn’t just wear off, it’s hardly there in the first place.