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Across the galaxy, massive shopping complexes are springing up, and eager customers are flocking in by the shuttle-load, ready to spend their hard-earned credits. As a top engineer, your mission is to construct the ultimate shopping center, one that keeps these interstellar shoppers happy and their wallets open. Will your mall become the crown jewel of retail, or will it collapse under the weight of bad planning? Time to put your skills to the test in Superstore 3000!
👥 2-4 players, ages 10+
⌛ Playing time: 30-45 minutes
📝 Designer: Rodrigo Rego
🎨 Artwork: Ryan Goldsberry
🏢 Publisher: Space Cowboys (review copy provided by Asmodee Belgium).
Gameplay Overview
Each turn, you have two simple choices: take money or build.
If you take money, grab a mall element from the bottom row of the Dispenser 3000 and flip it to its banknote side. If there are more elements of the same color in that column, you’ll get extra cash from the bank, assuming it’s available.
At the start of the game, your mall is nothing more than a lonely main entrance, but that’s about to change. Your first option for expansion is adding mall elements. These come in three categories: yellow food courts, green fashion stores, and blue hobby stores. Stores aren’t the only thing you can build, though. You can also add red entrances, which bring fresh waves of customers into your growing shopping empire.
Building requires you to take an element from the Dispenser 3000 and, if needed, pay the cost shown for that row. You’ll then place the new element on top of an existing structure, ideally connected to the same color to maximize your score.
Once you’ve constructed at least one or two stores of each type, you’ll have the option to build a docking bay later in the game. Each player has one gray and one brown docking bay, which not only expand the foundation of your mall but can also bring in new customers and earn extra points at the end of the game.
You can also make your shopping center stand out by constructing attractions. These come with specific conditions that must be met before they can be built. You might need to satisfy a certain number of customers in specific store types or arrange stores on particular levels of your mall. Each player has a personal attraction, and depending on the player count, a set of public attractions will be up for grabs. These oddly shaped structures give your mall a unique look, and better yet, they score points at the end of the game!
Once you’re done building for the turn, it’s time to check if your customers have found what they’re looking for. Each entrance shows icons for the store types that its customers prefer. If an eligible store is within three orthogonal steps of an entrance, a customer moves in and stays there for the rest of the game. Attractions make this movement even smoother since they don’t count as steps, and all stores connected to an attraction are considered adjacent.
The game ends when either the last attraction is built or the final mall element is taken from the Dispenser 3000. After the current round finishes, it’s time for final scoring.
Players will earn star balloons for having the most satisfied customers and the largest connected areas of yellow, green, and blue stores. These points, along with the bonuses from attractions and docking bays, determine the winner. Whoever has the highest score is officially the mastermind behind the galaxy’s most successful shopping center!
Game Info
Superstore 3000 is a family-friendly game designed for 2 to 4 players, suitable for ages 10 and up. With a playtime of 30 to 45 minutes, it’s just the right length for a casual game night. It’s long enough to be satisfying but short enough to keep younger players engaged without losing their attention.
The game comes from Rodrigo Rego, a designer whose name might not ring a bell immediately, but if you’ve played Savernake Forest or Landmarks, you’ve already seen some of his work. It’s published by Space Cowboys, the French studio behind games like Splendor and Unlock. Here in Belgium, it’s distributed by Asmodee Belgium, who kindly provided us with a review copy so we could explore the game and share our experience with you.
Production & Components – What’s in the Box?
Before we get into the gameplay, let’s talk about the game’s physical quality, because let’s be honest, we all love a game that looks as good as it plays.
The components are simple but solid. Most of the game consists of thick cardboard tiles, including entrances, stores, and banknotes. The game also includes handy measuring tools that help track the height of your shopping center. This comes in handy when you need to check if your mall meets the requirements for a new attraction.
Speaking of attractions, there are 14 uniquely shaped attraction tiles, but only a handful are used each game. This means the objectives change every time, keeping things fresh. Each attraction has a corresponding attraction card that clearly outlines the requirements to build it. Like the rest of the game, the cards are good quality and easy to read. For scoring, the game includes cardboard balloon tokens, which are used at the end of the game to determine majorities in different categories.
One of the coolest features in the game is the dual-layered Dispenser 3000, which neatly holds all the available mall elements. Every time you take a tile, the others slide down smoothly, keeping everything in order. It’s both practical and oddly satisfying because, let’s be real, who doesn’t love a game with a fun little gadget?
The most fun part of Superstore 3000? The 56 acrylic customer meeples. Each one has a unique character design, inspired by famous cartoons and sci-fi movies. If you look closely, you’ll spot wizards, aliens, robots, and creatures that bear a striking resemblance to certain well-known animated characters, but with just enough tweaks to avoid any angry trademark lawyers knocking on the door. Let’s just say, fans of Monsters Inc. or Futurama might have some déjà vu moments.
How Does It Play?
Superstore 3000 is built around a tile-placement and pattern-building system that is easy to grasp but still offers meaningful decisions. Each turn, players either take money or build, making it one of those games where turns move quickly and downtime is minimal.
Grabbing a mall element from the Dispenser 3000 isn’t just about choosing the best tile, it’s also about controlling what options you leave for your opponents. Smart drafting is key.
Your goal is to design the most attractive and well-organized shopping center. To do this, you’ll need to carefully place stores to maximize customer satisfaction while also fulfilling attraction requirements. Connecting stores of the same color boosts your score. Building attractions makes your mall stand out but comes with specific placement rules. Positioning entrances properly ensures customers can actually reach their favorite stores.
Since you’re balancing both short-term goals like grabbing a valuable tile before someone else does and long-term planning like ensuring you meet attraction conditions, every turn presents a small but meaningful puzzle.
There’s no single way to win Superstore 3000, which is a big plus. You can take different approaches. Some players focus on early-game objectives, rushing to complete attraction requirements to secure valuable points. Others play the long game, prioritizing large groups of same-type stores for big end-game bonuses. Another approach is to bring in customers as early as possible, since once they enter a store, they stay there for the rest of the game. Figuring out which strategy works best depends on the available attractions, how the tiles come out of the dispenser, and what your opponents are doing.
While everyone is busy building their own malls, you can’t afford to ignore what your rivals are up to. The public attractions are up for grabs, and once one player meets the requirements, they can claim it before anyone else. The game often has tense moments where multiple players are racing to build the same attraction. Hesitate for just one turn, and someone else will swoop in and take it. Timing is everything.
What keeps Superstore 3000 exciting? The randomized setup. The attraction cards are double-sided, so different objectives appear in each game. The mall elements come out of the Dispenser 3000 randomly, meaning no two games play out exactly the same. Depending on the player count, certain tiles are marked to ensure balance.
This variety keeps things interesting, as one game might have plenty of entrances early on, while another might have customers flooding in with nowhere to go. Adapting to these shifting conditions is part of the challenge.
Final Thoughts – Is Superstore 3000 Worth It?
At its core, Superstore 3000 is a fantastic family game. The rules are straightforward enough for kids and casual gamers, but there’s just enough strategy to keep seasoned players engaged. Because you’re building a shopping center in a very abstract way, even younger players can grasp the mechanics and compete on equal footing, which is always a win in a family setting.
If you’re looking for a deep, brain-burning strategy game, this isn’t it. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel when it comes to tile-placement games, but it doesn’t have to. What it does offer is a light, fast-paced, and engaging experience that’s fun for a wide audience.
If you enjoy fast turns, fun tile-laying mechanics, and a game that doesn’t overstay its welcome, Superstore 3000 is a great pick. The combination of tactical decision-making and casual accessibility makes it perfect for families, friend groups, and anyone who enjoys a little friendly competition with some quirky sci-fi charm.
📝 We received a copy of the game from Asmodee Belgium for review purposes.
