0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Board Game Top Shop

         

Board Game Top Shop also known as Tenant Wars in Japan is an anime style board game developed by KID and published by KID and Success in Japan, with Agetec publishing the game in North America for the Playstation release of the game. In addition to the Playstation release the game also released in Japan for the Sega Saturn.

The game first released in Japan on the 11^th of February 1998, the game would re release in Japan the following year on the 22^nd of July 1999 as a part of the Major Wave series of budget titles. The game would receive a western release in February of 2001 with the retitled Board Game Top Shop in North America.

Top Shop Board Game is very similar to the classic board game of Monopoly but greatly expands on the property element of the game. like monopoly the players move across a board in accordance with the number they roll on a dice and purchase unowned property they land on and earn money when they reach the bank.

 

A couple of significant differences to Monopoly though, the dice has an E on it, if the player rolls this it will trigger a random event to occur. There is also an Elevator spaces on the board, if the player lands on one of these it can affected the direction which the player moves on the board.

The main way you earn money in monopoly Is by other players landing on your owned spaces on the board, this is where the main difference in Top Shop Board Game comes in, instead of paying out money to stay in one of houses or hotels on a space, in this game the player is required to buy an item from the owners shop.

 

These items from stores cost a varying amounts of money, when a player buys one of these items it disappears from the store, the owner of the store must be restocked by the owner. In addition, when an item is bought the buyer may receive cash back and or a random number of points, these points can be used at the band to by various special events, such as random money exchanges or win the game when neighbouring spaces are purchased by the same player and a larger ship with greater stock.

If you are attempting to buy a store from another player, this can only be done when the store has sold out all of their goods, stores can only be restocked when the player who owns the store lands on the store, unless a special event allows for it.

 

Basic controls for the game, to move your character the D-Pad is used, actions can be selected by using the X button, you can also cancel an action by pressing the Circle button. You can access the games map by pressing the Square button, you can also access your inventory and merchandise list by pressing either the R1 or L1 shoulder buttons.

  

This being a Japanese only release at first before coming to the west much later, critic reviews for the game are very limited, with only two critic reviews available, and both of these reviews come from the same publication in Game Informer.

The first review from Game Informer Magazine rated the game at a respectable 78, the reviewer finding the game has the cut-throat economic gameplay that appeals to their nasty side that they like to explore when hanging around with friends.  

They concluded by saying Mario Party, Sonic Shuffle, and Crash Bash be damned! Top Shop is the only board game worth playing on any console under the sun, and a steal at only ten dollars. Moving on to the next review which comes again from Game Informer Magazine. This second option on the game rates it at a respectable 75, the reviewer calling Top Shop a fun little game that is great for all ages, and really can’t be beat for just ten bucks.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com, eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable at other retailers.

So lets get down to business with Gamedude, where the game is listed under Top Shop, if you are looking to trade in your copy of the game you will be looking at $3 for your copy of the game. If on the other hand you are in the market for a copy of the game, you will be looking at an outlay of $8.

 

Next up is Retrogames.co.uk who unsurprisingly don’t stock this Japanese and North American only release, so we will quickly move on to eStarland.com. Here we find the game listed, but currently the game is out of stock, when In stock the game has a usual price of between $4.98 and $9.95. Also on offer at eStarland.com is a trade in for this game, with up to $3.50 being offered for a complete copy of the game.

 

Lastly we have Amazon.com where we find a small number of copies of the North American version available. The first copy on offer which is priced at $15.98 and is in acceptable condition appears to be a complete copy of the game, it also comes with free shipping.

We do find a very good condition copy of the game listed for the same price, however this copy does not state that the game is in a complete condition, the same goes for another very good condition copy priced at $30.03. We do find a very good condition copy in complete condition, this copy however is priced at a quite steep $35.44.

The final copy on offer is a like new copy of the game, this copy has had one owner, who opened the packaging but states they never played the game, this copy is the Black Label version of the game and can be picked up for $43.60. at the time of writing this the game has no new copies currently on the market. 

Written by

P J Gibbon