Though the world of fantasy is vast and varied, one fixture of almost every town from role-playing games to video games is the convenient supply shop. These sellers of goods both mundane and arcane are always ready and waiting to supply adventurers with a nearly endless array of weapons and potions. Experience the cutthroat competition behind these "Adventure Marts" in the aptly named game from HUB Games.

Gameplay:

In Adventure Mart, players have five days to distinguish themselves from the competition and prove to their corporate overlords that their store is the most profitable. Players maximize their profits by upgrading their store with unique fixtures, qualified staff, and exciting new wares.

A player evaluates their selection of available goods. The upper left icon shows what type of good it is, the number of stars indicates it's quality and the upper right value indicates the item's sell-price.

The game features a variety of adventurers each one with particular types of items they are looking to buy and a supply of available gold to spend. Players attract clientele to their store like barkers: luring customers inside by offering successively more valuable and fantastic goods. Whoever offers the most attractive selection of gear wins the customer and makes a sale. However, players must be careful not to get carried away, it's important to strategize about what goods you offer and when. You can surely tantalize most customers to your shop by bidding your ultra-rare Philosopher's Stone, but a mere apprentice will not be able to pay its full value. It's up to you to decide when to up the ante, and when to hold back and wait for a more worthy patron.

Final Thoughts:

Those familiar with deck-building games will find Adventure Mart to be straight-forward to learn while offering a nice twist on the genre with the fun and interactive bidding mechanic. If you're new to deck-building games, the clear, well-designed iconography makes it a wonderful introduction to this time-tested mechanic. The fun art-style and subtle, referential humor of the flavor text makes this game particularly enjoyable for fans of the fantasy genre whether they're Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings or RPG fans. Like many games that focus on bidding, I would recommend the game with 3-4 players as there is more variation in the bidding rounds with more players.