Must-Try Hidden Gems: Board Game Top Shop (Playstation 1)

This oddly-titled game on the Playstation 1 is an easily-overlooked title, with its budget-looks and generic anime characters adorning the front cover. But give it a chance and you'll find a strangely addictive little party game.

Board Game Top Shop is a new spin on the Monopoly formula, where you play as a wide array of strange characters. The goal of Top Shop is to open stores in a new, vacant shopping mall to earn money and bankrupt the other players. Where this differs from Monopoly is some of the nuances.

Much like Monopoly, you can charge more for your items if you have a larger store. This requires you to expand your shop by opening another shop of the same type directly next door. You can chain together up to 4 stores to create a massive shop that's hard for the other players to avoid landing on. Players move around the map by rolling a dice, much like other board games or Mario Party. If you land on a space where one of the other players has built a shop, you're required to make a purchase of one of their items.

Not only do you have to buy shops, you also have to keep them stocked with products. You must buy inventory, which ranges from things like hot dogs to comic books, and keep your store stocked. If another player lands on your store, but you're sold out of everything, you miss out on a sale.

Landing on other player's shops depletes your available cash, but making purchases earns you points that you can use to earn game-altering modifications that can greatly change the momentum of the game.

With bright, colorful graphics and fast gameplay, Top Shop is simply a fun game to play. In addition, it supports up to 6 players (if sharing a single controller), so it makes a great party game as well. It can currently be had for around $10, so if you're into fun party games, definitely check it out.

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