Boom Street / Fortune Street – Review

Title: Boom Street (PAL) / Fortune Street (North America)
Developed By: Square Enix
Published By: Nintendo
Based on: The long running Itadaki Street series, with this release being the first to make it out of Japan.
Console: Nintendo Wii
Genre: Board Game
Subtitles: English
Classification: This game is classified PG for Mild Themes
Special Thanks: This game was funded out of my own pocket.

With Itadaki Street first being released on the Famicom in 1991, it is hard to believe that Nintendo has left it around 20 years to bring the series outside of Japan given that any game series lasting that long “must” be doing something right. However, we have been fortunate enough to finally be delivered this version of the game featuring characters from Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros series and Square Enix’s Dragon Quest series. Mario and his friends are no strangers to board games, having endured what would be at least 60 to 70 boards in total through the eight Mario Party games spanning the N64 to Wii consoles… but the difference between the games is great. While both games are party games, Mario Party was more focused on collecting stars and playing mini-games while the best way to describe Boom Street is to call it Square Enix’s unique take on Monopoly. How does this game play out? Read on to find out!

Plot

As you may have guessed, there is no real storyline to this game. However, if you require some justification you can assume that above many Dragon Quest and Super Mario worlds, a board game like world appeared in the sky and the characters of both games decided to achieve financial dominance over them. Due to the considerable number of worlds – around 15 to 20, each board while based off a particular area of game do not have any plot or backstory behind them, making this a pure gameplay experience similar to that of Monopoly. The game does attempt to spice things up a bit with the characters interacting with each other and do the player after every turn which is a rather nice addition and gives the impression you are at the very least playing with the CPU players.

Design

While the designs are bright and colourful, there was one major issue I had with them overall. As most boardgames would be too dull and uninspiring to just openly port to a video game, companies will usually choose to be a bit more inspiring with their releases so they will merge the boardgame with a themed environment – but unfortunately for this game while the environments are most certainly full of life and creative…. they appear as backdrops to the same board designs and don’t make full effect about what they offer. For example, for the Mario Kart board I feel it would have been more inspiring to have the gamers play on the track and purchase shops along the race-track instead of a sky world. The game also offers a variety of character options with many from both franchises along with your customized Mii (Including the ability to change your Mii’s accessories and clothing which is a nice touch) so you will never be short of characters to choose from. Overall, if a bit more time were put into the board designs I wouldn’t have minded if they only had a handful of maps over 15 short and relatively uninspiring ones, but it still manages to keep the board game charm they are trying to pull off.

Music and Sound

In terms of the games soundtrack, it primarily consists of remixed tracks from both Dragon Quest and Super Mario games and is enjoyable, but as the games can run for extended period of times it can drag on especially as there are not too many mini-games or the like to give your ears a diversity of music like Mario Party did as it is quite possible to rack up a high number of rounds without a single mini-game. Unfortunately nothing much in terms of the normal character grunts, with the game preferring to make use of a limited number of sound effects in lieu of them. This is sort of disappointing as it makes the characters more or less the same as each other in most ways except design and the statements they make during the game.

Gameplay

As I have mentioned previously, the game is essentially Monopoly with many other gameplay systems added to it to make it a game based on not only luck, but intellect and strategy in order to both profit from your actions and to bankrupt or financially inhibit your competitors. At the beginning of a game you are given a set amount of money which you must use to purchase unoccupied businesses and properties from around the board which provide you with a source of money by improving your net worth, providing payouts on a regular basis, allowing you to invest in it to make more money and of course…. let rivals use your services when they land on your square for a cost. The ultimate goal of this is to reach a pre-determined criteria at the start of the course (Usually related to raising money) and bankrupting your rivals for your benefit.

The game provides some more interesting and unique options to let you make money. Through traversing the entire board and collecting four suits (Heart, Diamond, Club and Spade) and making it back to the bank – you will be able to level up and get some money which will provide you with a decent sum of money and the potential to make more money through your properties. As well, the board is split up into many districts which depending on your play strategy, may provide you with another competitive edge to gameplay. Purchasing more businesses in a district allows a greater return on your properties and provided you are playing on the normal gameplay settings, you can invest in the stock market for each district. The stock market system can increase the value of your properties and provide an extra source of income (You arent even limited to owning the buildings on a district to purchase stocks for it so you can ruin rival business values or make a profit off their success), however there are risks associated with it but equally there are potential payoffs. Essentially, the purpose of the game is using business sense to make a profit while roaming around a board game world.

This game will not appeal to everyone, and really is one I would not necessarily advise parents to be buying for younger kids or those who want to have fun right off the bat. There are a few mini-games included in the game however these are far and few between, so instead you are forced to mostly wander around the board world taking it in turns to roll a dice – or essentially making it more like playing a board game with Mario and Dragon Quest characters. There is also very little activity on the board to keep some people entertained – as there is no chance time to shuffle items between players or similar and the most that will happen on the board is occasionally landing on a warp space or some other stage specific event space. The game does do a few things right however such as providing a watered down easy mode for more novice gamers (Removes stock and district systems) and allows you to unlock characters, boards and purchase accessories for your Mii.

The game really only has value when you are playing multiplayer with a group of three friends however the single player mode can drag on when you can end up playing for hours on end with no one to talk to, mock their bankruptcy or feel any sort of accomplishment against others (Same as most board games however). The game also includes an online play option for those who cannot find a group of three friends however as of writing this review I have not been able to test the online mode. More or less, to determine if you will enjoy this game – pull out your copy of Monopoly and play it for a an hour or two… if you enjoy it than this is the game for you… otherwise you might want to consider Mario Party 8 on the Wii.

Final Score
Storyline/Character Development: N/A
Design: C+
Music/Voice Acting: B
Gameplay: C
Replayability: C
Personal Opinion: C
Overall Score: C