As a boardgame aficionado, I was excited to try out Nintendo’s new boardgame-oriented game for the Wii, Fortune Street.  Fortune Street is a “true” boardgame and doesn’t rely on skill challenges, as one would find in Mario Party.  Instead, one to four players (at home or online) participate in a Monopoly-esque game of rolling dice, buying properties, and investing in stocks and upgrades.  The first player to reach a minimum net worth (or the highest value when the first player goes bankrupt) wins the game.  I admit I’m starting from a lukewarm opinion on Monopoly, but Fortune Street takes the luck element from Monopoly and steps it up.  This is the wrong way to go, completely overwhelming any of the few decisions presented to players during the game.  A game of Fortune Street can take over an hour to play, far too long for a game where one’s fate relies so heavily on the luck of the dice.  However, Fortune Street could be a good purchase for someone looking for a boardgame like atmosphere on the Wii, where nearly anyone in the family has a decent chance of winning.

To start the game, choose your Mii and your playing board (there seem to be dozens available, all variations of layouts containing 4 to 8 groups of 4 similarly colored property spaces) and roll to see who gets to go first.  It won’t be the last time you roll the dice, so I hope you enjoy it!  Starting with a small budget, players race around the board (rolling the dice to determine how many spaces to move) and may purchase any property square upon which they land.  If another player lands on one of your owned spaced, they pay “rent” to you.  Land on one of your previously owned spaces and you can spend money to upgrade any one of your properties.  This, of course, is key to winning the game.  The income you receive from people landing on your property increases as you upgrade properties and also increases if you own multiples of the same color.  This is particularly sweet, since colors typically run in a row and owning multiples increases the odds of one of them being landed on as other players pass by.

The most reliable way to earn money during the game is to simply complete an entire circuit of the board.  There are four special locations on the board corresponding to a spade, heart, diamond, and club.  Pass by the four locations and return to the start space and you collect income based on your holdings as well as your current level.  Players start at level 1 and go up a level every time they return to start with a set of four location symbols.  In addition, increasing one’s level increases the maximum allowed investment in one’s properties.  Thus, to really pump up a property’s price a player wants to have a few levels, own more than one property of that color, and then pour some money into it to upgrade it.  In the advanced game, players may also buy stocks when passing by the start space (whether they’ve collected a set of 4 location symbols or not).  Stocks can be purchased (up to 99 at a time) for any of the colored groups on the board and fluctuate depending on the player’s actions.  Simply buying stock in an area increases its value by $1, while selling typically reduces it by $1.  (Note, that the increase and decrease are always after the transaction so you can make $99 by buying and selling the same stock over two turns…)  Where stock really increases in value is when players spend money to upgrade property in that area.  Stock prices can jump $5 or more when a player heavily invests in a particular area.  Since stocks can be sold at nearly any time with no penalty (other than the $1 dip in price), they are a handy way to keep semi-liquid assets on hand for future emergency purchases.  They are also a decent moneymaker, since they pay out cash (from the bank) to any stock owner whenever a player has to play another player rent in one of the colored spaces associated with that particular stock.

The game continues in this manner (with a few bells and whistles that add random factors like jackpots, random player movement, and others – slightly reminiscent of Mario Party board effects) until one player reaches the required net worth and returns to start, or one (or more) players go bankrupt.  Perform well in a game, and your Mii can earn funny hats and other clothing that can be worn when playing future games.
Fortune Street is a well-made title that simply has so many random effects, that they override most of a player’s control over their own destiny.  It’s possible for a player to make poor decisions and lose the game, but it is far too easy for a player to have poor rolls at the start of the game and have that steamroll into an hour of failing to catch back up.  Due to the number of “special” spaces on the board, there are even fewer basic property spaces for sale than one would find in Monopoly, this makes for even more random starts to the game giving huge swings in momentum depending on a players’ first few turns.  For example, in my most recent game I was awarded the “prize” of all the other players being forced to roll a “1” on their next turn.  This was early in the game so it only resulted in all three other players being able to buy a second property of a color they just purchased.  Not only did they now all own another property (whereas I had landed on a “special” space, thus missing out on a purchase), having a second one in the same color permanently increased the income of those properties for the rest of the game.  Needless to say lost the game only 40 minutes later after struggling to find ways to catch back up.  Recognizing when to cut one’s losses and simply restarting the game may be the best long-term solution.
Fortune Street is not a bad video game, but it is a sub-par board game in my book.  My decisions influence the game, but the roll of the dice affect things even more.  This isn’t bad in a 10 to 20 minute game, but if I’m going to sit down and spend an hour or more on a game, I want to have more control over my destiny.  It does offer something for families looking for a game that has some decisions but provides a chance for most anyone in the family to win, but that simply isn’t enough for me to recommend it for most households.  The Wii provides some great animations, special squares with funny powers, and keeps track of all the busy work of managing one’s money, but this isn’t enough to make it better than simply pulling out a trusty copy of a “real” boardgame and sitting down at a table together.
Kid Factor:   While almost any kid could sit down and fiddle their way through the menus, some reading is required.  In the basic game, without stocks, it could easily be played by any 8 or 10 year old, while I’d recommend the advanced stock version for 10+, preferably the more strategic thinkers.  The game is played using a Wiimote turned on its side, so the overall control is typically not an issue.  There are online gaming options (admittedly through the -hopefully- screen Wii friend codes), so the obvious parental warnings for that should be in effect.
To start the game, choose your Mii and your playing board (there seem to be dozens available, all variations of layouts containing 4 to 8 groups of 4 similarly colored property spaces) and roll to see who gets to go first.  It won’t be the last time you roll the dice, so I hope you enjoy it!  Starting with a small budget, players race around the board (rolling the dice to determine how many spaces to move) and may purchase any property square upon which they land.  If another player lands on one of your owned spaced, they pay “rent” to you.  Land on one of your previously owned spaces and you can spend money to upgrade any one of your properties.  This, of course, is key to winning the game.  The income you receive from people landing on your property increases as you upgrade properties and also increases if you own multiples of the same color.  This is particularly sweet, since colors typically run in a row and owning multiples increases the odds of one of them being landed on as other players pass by.
The most reliable way to earn money during the game is to simply complete an entire circuit of the board.  There are four special locations on the board corresponding to a spade, heart, diamond, and club.  Pass by the four locations and return to the start space and you collect income based on your holdings as well as your current level.  Players start at level 1 and go up a level every time they return to start with a set of four location symbols.  In addition, increasing one’s level increases the maximum allowed investment in one’s properties.  Thus, to really pump up a property’s price a player wants to have a few levels, own more than one property of that color, and then pour some money into it to upgrade it.  In the advanced game, players may also buy stocks when passing by the start space (whether they’ve collected a set of 4 location symbols or not).  Stocks can be purchased (up to 99 at a time) for any of the colored groups on the board and fluctuate depending on the player’s actions.  Simply buying stock in an area increases its value by $1, while selling typically reduces it by $1.  (Note, that the increase and decrease are always after the transaction so you can make $99 by buying and selling the same stock over two turns…)  Where stock really increases in value is when players spend money to upgrade property in that area.  Stock prices can jump $5 or more when a player heavily invests in a particular area.  Since stocks can be sold at nearly any time with no penalty (other than the $1 dip in price), they are a handy way to keep semi-liquid assets on hand for future emergency purchases.  They are also a decent moneymaker, since they pay out cash (from the bank) to any stock owner whenever a player has to play another player rent in one of the colored spaces associated with that particular stock.
The game continues in this manner (with a few bells and whistles that add random factors like jackpots, random player movement, and others – slightly reminiscent of Mario Party board effects) until one player reaches the required net worth and returns to start, or one (or more) players go bankrupt.  Perform well in a game, and your Mii can earn funny hats and other clothing that can be worn when playing future games.
Fortune Street is a well-made title that simply has so many random effects, that they override most of a player’s control over their own destiny.  It’s possible for a player to make poor decisions and lose the game, but it is far too easy for a player to have poor rolls at the start of the game and have that steamroll into an hour of failing to catch back up.  Due to the number of “special” spaces on the board, there are even fewer basic property spaces for sale than one would find in Monopoly, this makes for even more random starts to the game giving huge swings in momentum depending on a players’ first few turns.  For example, in my most recent game I was awarded the “prize” of all the other players being forced to roll a “1” on their next turn.  This was early in the game so it only resulted in all three other players being able to buy a second property of a color they just purchased.  Not only did they now all own another property (whereas I had landed on a “special” space, thus missing out on a purchase), having a second one in the same color permanently increased the income of those properties for the rest of the game.  Needless to say lost the game only 40 minutes later after struggling to find ways to catch back up.  Recognizing when to cut one’s losses and simply restarting the game may be the best long-term solution.
Fortune Street is not a bad video game, but it is a sub-par board game in my book.  My decisions influence the game, but the roll of the dice affect things even more.  This isn’t bad in a 10 to 20 minute game, but if I’m going to sit down and spend an hour or more on a game, I want to have more control over my destiny.  It does offer something for families looking for a game that has some decisions but provides a chance for most anyone in the family to win, but that simply isn’t enough for me to recommend it for most households.  The Wii provides some great animations, special squares with funny powers, and keeps track of all the busy work of managing one’s money, but this isn’t enough to make it better than simply pulling out a trusty copy of a “real” boardgame and sitting down at a table together.

As a boardgame aficionado, I was excited to try out Nintendo’s new boardgame-oriented game for the Wii, Fortune Street.  Fortune Street is a “true” boardgame and doesn’t rely on skill challenges, as one would find in Mario Party.  Instead, one to four players (at home or online) participate in a Monopoly-esque game of rolling dice, buying properties, and investing in stocks and upgrades.  The first player to reach a minimum net worth (or the highest value when the first player goes bankrupt) wins the game.  I admit I’m starting from a lukewarm opinion on Monopoly, but Fortune Street takes the luck element from Monopoly and steps it up.  This is the wrong way to go, completely overwhelming any of the few decisions presented to players during the game.  A game of Fortune Street can take over an hour to play, far too long for a game where one’s fate relies so heavily on the luck of the dice.  However, Fortune Street could be a good purchase for someone looking for a boardgame like atmosphere on the Wii, where nearly anyone in the family has a decent chance of winning.

Kid Factor:   While almost any kid could sit down and fiddle their way through the menus, some reading is required.  In the basic game, without stocks, it could easily be played by any 8 or 10 year old, while I’d recommend the advanced stock version for 10+, preferably the more strategic thinkers.  The game is played using a Wiimote turned on its side, so the overall control is typically not an issue.  There are online gaming options (admittedly through the -hopefully- screen Wii friend codes), so the obvious parental warnings for that should be in effect.

Tags: Game Reviews