First “The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword,” now this. In less than a month, in the waning days of the Wii’s life cycle, we get two games that should have launched with the console. “Skyward Sword” is the perfect showcase for one Wii wheelhouse — its motion controls — while “Fortune Street,” a bizarre, engrossing hybrid of Monopoly and the stock market, is a great example of the console’s other focus: opening video games to people of different ages and interests. If you have any board game fans, armchair tacticians or budding entrepreneurs among your loved ones, here’s how to unite them over the holidays.
“Fortune Street” looks like a board game, plays like a war game, feels like a Mario game, and will have you thinking more about high finance than you would ever guess. The game can be played two ways. Easy Rules make for something like Monopoly — roll the die, buy properties, make sales when other people land on stores you own — with a couple differences. First, simple minigames everyone can play break up the action. Second, and more importantly, you can invest money in the shops you own, so their prices go up.
Playing under the Standard Rules, though, is what makes “Fortune Street” special. In Monopoly, if you have bad luck in the opening rounds, you’re doomed to wait around while the person with Boardwalk marches slowly and inevitably to victory. In “Fortune Street,” initial bad luck isn’t so bad, because you can invest in other people’s properties by buying shares in different zones on the board. If someone lands on a property in a zone where you own stock, you get a cut of what that person pays. If someone invests in a store in a zone where you own stock, the value of your shares rises. Stocks also rise and fall as they’re bought and sold, so there are all sorts of strategies for making money. (A favorite is to freeload off other players by investing in their properties, then sell your stock in their districts as they near the target net worth, sending the value of their holdings plummeting.) “Fortune Street” is a brilliant multiplayer endeavor, and online play ensures you can take on humans after your cousins have gone back to Toledo.
| ‘Fortune Street’ |
| » System: Wii |
| » Price: $49.99 |
| » Rating: 4 out of 5 stars |
Two complaints: The single-player game needs to pick up the pace. Even on the fastest setting, which promises a “blur,” there are tons of unnecessary pauses. Second, where’s the voice acting? It’s bizarre for Mario to take the first-place position on the podium, leap into the air and cry out nothing. Is a “Waha!” here and there too much to ask for?
Even so, board game fans should be thrilled Nintendo finally brought this series over from Japan. If you’re sick of Monopoly and “Mario Party” — and who isn’t? — make the switch.
