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Shopping. It’s a thing we all have to do. It’s the only way you’re going to get all those board games into your house, so hop to it! Oh sure, there’s all of those other things that you might as well pick up at the same time I suppose, like food and clothing and stuff to clean your house with, apparently. You could get all of these things online, but I’m told that it’s just not the same as suffering the indignity of bumbling around a physical shop full of ignorant people determined to huff and puff over your shoulder if you happen to be standing in front of the specific cheese they seem to want. And when you do move out of the way? Turns out they didn’t want it. Don’t get me wrong. Shopping’s fine. It is. But it’s a bit bland these days, isn’t it? Everywhere has the same shops. There’s several shopping centres nearish to me, and there’s no personality, no fun little surprises.
I can only hope that someday in the future it all gets more exciting….
Wait a minute! That day is here!
Superstore 3000 is by Space Cowboys and published by Asmodee is for 2-4 players and will put this issue of dowdy and dull shopping malls to bed for good. The construction of this brand new, glossy mall is in your hands, as is its success. It’s up to you if you think a haunted house would look ideal near the fashion stores, or if you want some kind of mad indoor tornado full of cows on the roof. I mean, if that was near me, I’d check it out…
Superstore 3000 is by Space Cowboys and published by Asmodee is for 2-4 players and will put this issue of dowdy and dull shopping malls to bed for good. The construction of this brand new, glossy mall is in your hands, as is its success. It’s up to you if you think a haunted house would look ideal near the fashion stores, or if you want some kind of mad indoor tornado full of cows on the roof. I mean, if that was near me, I’d check it out…
First Impressions
Colour me intrigued. There is a bright and punchy box cover in a cartoony kind-of retro futurist style. There are a lot of shop tiles in four colours and made of nice thick card. There’s a bunch of crazy attractions of peculiar shapes and sizes, and I imagine that once the game nears its end phase it will have quite the table presence.
There’s a bag of 56 small acrylic figures, notable for three reasons. One, I’m not kidding when I say small. Two, each one is a different shopper who could visit your mall, and by different I mean, monsters, aliens, and more. Three, despite their diminutive size, they stand up very easily. There’s also a heck of a lot of shop tiles and a good fistful of highly unusual attractions, all in a bright and breezy art style. Colours are strong, icons are clear, so hopes are high that this is going to be easy to follow, with very little referral to the rulebook during play.
Speaking of the rulebook, instructions are clear, plenty of illustrations to guide the player, and - crucially - some clear images of setup and of how things look in-game. I’m getting good feelings about this game…
How do you play?
Here’s a couple more early points in Superstore 3000’s favour: it’s easy to learn, and easy to teach (apart from one of my usual blips, but that was quickly ironed out (I’ll tell you more about my tomfoolery soon: after all, honesty is apparently the best policy). After a few turns, everyone will be up to speed, and the game starts to move very quickly.
Allow me to introduce you to the Dispenser 3000. This is an incredible (and peculiar (and I assume very, very large)) device that can pump out a random selection of shop units that you and your fellow engineers can use to construct a modern mall like no other. They come in three colours: yellow for food court (bring on the burgers), blue for hobby (that’s where you’ll find us, am I right?) and green for fashion. Within the yellow section you can find restaurants, ice cream stores and groceries, each with their own specific icon. Blue quadrant has theatres, bookshops, and gyms (what, no board game shop?). And green offers interior design, fashion shops, and hairdressers. Red tiles are new entrances, and you’re going to need plenty of these if you want more shoppers in your mall. Take note of the colour and icon of the entrances that emerge from
the Dispenser 3000, as these indicate where your shoppers want to go: if you’ve got an unfilled bookshop in your mall and there’s an entrance with a blue book icon, you might want to grab it quick. Note that the lowest rank of tiles is free to take and build, but the next row up will cost you one money, the next level up two, and the top row will cost three money (don’t think I’ve ever had as much as three money in my life).
This leads us to the player turn, and at the start of your turn you have a very simple choice, you either build something, or you take money. To take money, you’ll choose either the left or right shop tile from the bottom row of the Dispenser 3000 and flip it over to its banknote side. It’s then yours. If, for example, it is a blue hobby tile that you’ve taken and there are other blue hobby tiles in the higher rows of the Dispenser 3000, you take those as money too. This can be quite the power move if you have no real use for either of the available free tiles and you can’t yet afford the higher ones… or if you suspect that your opponent is really keen on grabbing that yellow ice cream store (beware yellow ice cream, people) so that they can guide another shopping to joy, then perhaps the mall devils will drive you to interrupt those plans…
Back to build something, which is the option you will choose most often. You need to build shops that will attract your shoppers. If someone wants a blue gym, get that, place it in a suitable spot, and as long as it is within three spaces of the relevant shopper they can go there immediately - this does not cost a move or a turn. Perhaps the shopper’s entrance door has a green dress icon, then they must find a fashion store in the green area. It’s up to you as the mall manager to place that unit within reach. Once they reach their preferred store, the shoppers stay there (much like my beloved Other Half when she makes her way to the craft shop). If the shop is more than three spaces away, then a shopper cannot reach it. This is when you need to build new red entrances, which provide an extra two shoppers with their own needs.
You can fit two shop tiles above your entrance, and you can stack as high as you wish.. To widen your mall, you need docking bays. You can only get docking bays when you meet the
correct criteria - for a basic docking bay, you need one of each colour tile in your mall - red, blue, green and yellow. Docking bays are worthwhile not just for the extra space, but because they can provide bonuses that tally up at the end of the game. These bonus points (balloons) are the main reason to build the really wacky attractions. Stuff an aquarium on top of your mall and nab a bunch of extra points, same if you manage to pop a disco on the side.
What did I get wrong this time?
Oh yeah, even with this game I got something wrong. This time it was caused by reading something into the rules that the rulebook doesn’t actually say. I was under the (false) impression that once the initial three shoppers on the entrance tile moved, a new set would appear on the next turn. That’s how shop entrances work in real life, right? This led to a further error: the shoppers must be able to move another three spaces on the next turn, until they reach a suitable place. This didn’t make any sense, and made even less sense once you introduce new entrances.
There is perhaps room for clarification on this issue in the rulebook, but then again it’s possible that I’m the only div who did this. My self-made problem is the only issue I had with the well-written and clear rulebook. My second game – also known as the first time I played Superstore 3000 properly – was much, much better, and led immediately to a third game. You’ll do a better job than me of understanding the rules, and you’ll get that satisfying click the first time you play. Make no mistake (unlike me), the mechanics of this game are spot-on.
Does it play well?
Very much so. The puzzle is compulsive. I’ll put it this way: there are people who did their first Sudoku, loved it, and then kept doing them. All that changes is the placement of the numbers, but the mechanics of the puzzle-solving are strong enough to keep drawing the player back. That’s pretty much how I feel about Superstore 3000 (although, for clarification, I like this far more than Sudoku). Where your shoppers can and will go is different every time you play. The tiles that might come up can change, and your opponents might grab the units you want, so you may struggle to get that combo you want which would enable you to get that new entrance or funky disco extension that you wanted. Are you going to prioritize getting as many shoppers into certain coloured tiles so that you can nab that end game bonus balloon? Are you focusing on grouping together your store types? Are you going all out to snag as many whacky additions to your store as you can? There’s a pleasing number of routes to gain victory points. The key to success in any of these routes, however, is your tile placement, and how well you can adapt and modify your plan based on which tiles actually come out.
It’s all of the mentioned gameplay options that are the real reason why Superstore 3000 shines. You’ll never feel like you’re doing the same thing over and over, every turn can bring a different element, and your finished mall will look considerably different from your opponent’s. Pleasingly different as well, as the module design of even the largest, wackiest attractions has been well thought out.
Most games play differently at various player counts, and Superstore 3000 is no exception. Two or three players seems to be the sweet spot: there’s plenty of tiles for everyone to get on with construction, and to hit those criteria for the more interesting additions to your mall.
With four players, despite the additional shop tiles added to the game, there simply aren't enough shop tiles to make a decent sized mall, which makes it harder to grab those cool big attractions. Again, the house rule that we implemented - reusing tiles that were taken as money and were spent - would mitigate this issue to some degree, but we felt like we had more fun and got more done at a player count of three.
I’ve only got two little niggles. First is my teeniest, tiniest peeve with the art style. It’s slightly too cartoony for my liking, but this is a matter of personal aesthetic taste and has no effect upon my enjoyment of the gameplay. It’s evidently an art style chosen to appeal to kids and draw in a family audience, and if that means more people play Superstore 3000 as a result, then so be it.
Secondly, it’s great that the big attractions give you a decent chunk of victory points – this is, after all, what wins the game – but I can’t help but wonder if they should also have another little bonus to make them even more essential, something unique to each attraction. After all, the attractions should be the big selling point to the game: they’re the elements that you’ll most want to see as part of the finished construction.
Conclusions
Superstore 3000 is a far better game than I was expecting it to be. This is a game that feels like it has been play-tested, and play-tested, and play-tested again, and the result is a game that is mechanically flawless. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Superstore 3000 every time it’s come to the table, and I’m already looking forward to my next insane mall construction session. Expansions would be very welcome, as would any potential future sequel which upped the focus on - and the number of - crazy attractions you could add. It’s one of those games that adults can play with the kids and feel like they’re actually enjoying it too, rather than simply tolerating it for the sake of the young ‘uns.
This is one shopping trip I’m happy to go on any time.
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