"Tamagotchi Connexion Corner Shop", Nintendo DS, 2006.

Usually the ecology of video games is that arcade games devolve to home console games, which devolve to handheld consoles and thence to LCD portables... and eventually, board games and coffee mugs. This demonstrates a reverse trajectory, though the phenomenally successful Tamagotchi is admittedly exceptional in the world of LCD games, having moved some 70-odd million units.

TamaTown is OPEN for business!
Now available!

Also look for Tamagotchi Connexion virtual pets now available!
From the creators of Parappa the Rapper!

Tamagotchi Connexion
Corner Shop

Join your Tamagotchi friends as they open their first shop.
Keep your customers happy and watch your business grow!

• Partner with your favorite Tamagotchi character
• Choose your shop type and open for business!
• Clean teeth, do laundry, perform music and more for your customers!
• Swap items with your friends wirelessly!
• Unlock secret codes for your Tamagotchi Connexion virtual pet!

Virtually every line item in this ad is engineered to repel me, and then it's all effortlessly neutralized by the simple phrase "from the creators of Parappa the Rapper!" If anyone can make doing laundry fun, it's Parappa. "Fold, fold, fold the shirts, and hang 'em up!"

After my chilling experiences with Animal Crossing, I was pretty prepared to write off any game to which shopkeeping is central (barring Nethack or, hey, my own design, still to be implemented). Also included, as you've no doubt noticed -- the first page of the Archie comic from which it originated. In short: Jughead, now a more well-rounded Epicure concerned for all aspects of leisure, introduces his father to a video game, and Pop gets hooked. Wacky hijinks ensue.