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"The Jet Gamer" Game Review: Fortune Street
10 years ago
Hope you guys enjoy another review so soon. =)
Fortune Street
Well this is a complete turn around from a lot of the games I've been playing this year. I doubt it will be the end of the Nintendo themed games either this year. Expect many more to come. But this time, it is something a bit odd when you think of a Nintendo game staring Mario. This is a game actually made by SquareEnix and is a combo game between Dragon Quest and Super Mario. How in the world does this work you may ask? Why, they are playing a variation on Monopoly, only quite a bit different. How does something like this hold up? Well, let's keep going and find out shall we?
Gameplay
I was actually a bit torn on what to give the score for this section of the game. The game actually is fun and a good interesting take on monopoly, which quite unique in its own way. Let me go over this first, before I get into why I was a bit torn on this game. Fortune Street's gameplay is pretty much, you and three other players select a map and then are having a race to be the first person to amass a set amount of money on the map to win. You do this by first roaming around the map and buying up properties. When you land on a property, you can buy it and add it to your net worth. If you have four or five in a row in the same district, you acquire a domination. Each set of shops you own in a district, the more expensive it is for people when they land on them. You can invest money in them, if you have it on hand, to make these properties more expensive for other players if they land on them. This is also how you defend your territory as other players will be doing this same thing and also don't want you to acquire a domination. They can do this buy buying your shops for five times what they are worth against your will. The other player takes a hit financially, but you lose the shop and your shops all in the same area all decrease in value. The second way you make money is through the stock market if you are playing on standard rules mode. There are two modes, an easy mode where you just do the property build up I just mentioned, but in standard rules, the stock market is thrown in there and it is very important in this mode. You buy stocks in properties and then when improvement happens in those properties or more stocks are bought, the stocks go up in price and your net worth increases. By doing this in your properties or in other players that are building up their properties, you can make more money and get to the target amounts for the maps more quickly than just buying shops in this mode. This is a little more complicated than the other mode of course, but it still isn't that hard to pick up. While there is a great number of Super Mario and Dragon Quest characters you can pick from as the character you are playing as during these matches, you can only play as them in the multiplayer mode with other friends. When you are playing the game alone, you can only play as your Mii. This is a big disappointment as I was hoping to be able to play as the characters, but instead I was stuck using my Mii the entire game. Now, the part that really did effect the score in the gameplay area, wasn't anything that involved the maps or how you play the game. It is all about the computer AI in the game. It's flat out annoying and cheap. The AI has to be cheating in this game as there is no way any human could get the lucky rolls they get. They easily skip over your shops all the time, and get just the right rolls all the time to get where they need to go. They also seem to really pick on the player and only sort of pick on the other AI's. This gets very annoying after awhile, and can really frustrate the player. The game is still fun to play, but this is a game you play with other people to get the most enjoyment out of it. If you play with the AI like I did, it will bring you great frustration. It is why I actually didn't finish the main single player mode as I was playing maps over and over again and getting beaten again and again by this cheating AI. I can't stress this enough, play this game with friends, not the AI, unless you enjoy cheap AI tricks or a real challenge.
Story
There is no story to this game as it is pretty much just a board game, so this area gets a pass and isn't counted.
Graphics
You would think being a board game there wouldn't be much to the graphics and for the most part you are right when it comes to the board you are playing on. However, despite how these look, the backgrounds are where this game shines. In the back of each board, the background is themed to look like a particular location in either the Dragon Quest or Super Mario world. You can see familiar areas and small versions of these locations in the background as you are playing the board game. They are even slightly animated as well as you will see enemies, and other characters roaming around in these backgrounds. This shows they really did put some nice attention to detail, despite it being mainly in the background. While you will mainly be looking at the boards, the fact they put so much attention into the backgrounds is quite amazing. The boards while simple are nicely designed and appealing to look at, as they are often designed to resemble something that is related to the background. Your characters all look fine as well. They look like who they should be and are quite nicely detailed. They are all animated well, and the close up pictures you see whenever they are speaking to you look nice as well. While there still could have been a few more details thrown in there, as some of the backgrounds are a bit on the simple side and don't change as much as others, you will still be quite impressed I would say with the look of the game for what it is.
Sound
This is where this game really shines. The music is just wonderful, and you will find yourself humming it throughout most of your play time with the game. Each Dragon Quest level is filled with a musical tune that matches the level it is supposed to be representing, and the same goes with the Super Mario levels as well. If you enjoyed one or both of these series, these tunes will be instantly recognizable, and on top of that, remixed to fix a more modern day console. They won't be just the old sounds from back in the day, no no, these are updated versions for your favorite tunes. On top of that, this being a SquareEnix game means there is even some Mario RPG music in there in a few levels as an added treat. I will say, these are some tunes that would be worth listening to even after you are done playing the game, so give them a find if you can and listen to them for yourself. I highly recommend it!
Control
Not much to say about the controls for Fortune Street. They work properly and are very standard. You hold the wiimotes sideways instead of pointing them at the screen, so you do play this game like having a controller instead of doing all the motion controls. You can changes its orientation in the options to make it vertical if you wish to play one handed, but the two handed approach works just fine. Other than some tiny hiccups in trying to get characters to turn, when the arrows show diagonally when they get to crossroads, but you are pressing flat up, down, left, and right on your controller, which can be slightly confusing. Other than that, the controls are simple and done well, as you would expect in a simple to control game like this.
Replay Value
I would say replay value got effect like the gameplay section did up above. The replay value in this game actually is pretty high, but for different reasons. It is a board game, so the results will be different each and every time, which is very high for the game, the fact the AI will frustrate the heck out of you really does pull this down a little bit. Why would you want to come back to a game like that, if it was making you mad? Actually, you may want to come back to it at some point in the future as the game is still fun overall. As a matter of fact, the reason it stays so high as well is the fact this does appear to have great multiplayer opportunities. If you can get some friends together, this will be a great game for you all to play together and be quite competitive in at the same time. It is also very family friendly, so kids can play along with other friends or have a family night with this game. This is definitely a game to come back to at some point in the future and play again. Just keep in mind the frustration that can come in the single player game is you experience the cheating AI too often. Overall though, it is still very replayable with lots of friends to play along with you.
Overall, I would say Fortune Street, despite me getting frustrated enough to put the game away, is still a good game overall. It will bring frustrations though during single player, so let that be known. If you have some friends that are willing to play with you though, or parents if you are young enough as well and want a family game night that is not the usual board games, I would give this game a try. It still is a neat concept, and the music will keep you nicely entertained. Just be careful of that cheap AI now alright?!
Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Fortune Street an eight point five out of ten
Gameplay: 7
Story: N.A.
Graphics: 9
Sound: 10
Control: 9
Replay Value: 8
Overall: 8.5
Fortune Street
Well this is a complete turn around from a lot of the games I've been playing this year. I doubt it will be the end of the Nintendo themed games either this year. Expect many more to come. But this time, it is something a bit odd when you think of a Nintendo game staring Mario. This is a game actually made by SquareEnix and is a combo game between Dragon Quest and Super Mario. How in the world does this work you may ask? Why, they are playing a variation on Monopoly, only quite a bit different. How does something like this hold up? Well, let's keep going and find out shall we?
Gameplay
I was actually a bit torn on what to give the score for this section of the game. The game actually is fun and a good interesting take on monopoly, which quite unique in its own way. Let me go over this first, before I get into why I was a bit torn on this game. Fortune Street's gameplay is pretty much, you and three other players select a map and then are having a race to be the first person to amass a set amount of money on the map to win. You do this by first roaming around the map and buying up properties. When you land on a property, you can buy it and add it to your net worth. If you have four or five in a row in the same district, you acquire a domination. Each set of shops you own in a district, the more expensive it is for people when they land on them. You can invest money in them, if you have it on hand, to make these properties more expensive for other players if they land on them. This is also how you defend your territory as other players will be doing this same thing and also don't want you to acquire a domination. They can do this buy buying your shops for five times what they are worth against your will. The other player takes a hit financially, but you lose the shop and your shops all in the same area all decrease in value. The second way you make money is through the stock market if you are playing on standard rules mode. There are two modes, an easy mode where you just do the property build up I just mentioned, but in standard rules, the stock market is thrown in there and it is very important in this mode. You buy stocks in properties and then when improvement happens in those properties or more stocks are bought, the stocks go up in price and your net worth increases. By doing this in your properties or in other players that are building up their properties, you can make more money and get to the target amounts for the maps more quickly than just buying shops in this mode. This is a little more complicated than the other mode of course, but it still isn't that hard to pick up. While there is a great number of Super Mario and Dragon Quest characters you can pick from as the character you are playing as during these matches, you can only play as them in the multiplayer mode with other friends. When you are playing the game alone, you can only play as your Mii. This is a big disappointment as I was hoping to be able to play as the characters, but instead I was stuck using my Mii the entire game. Now, the part that really did effect the score in the gameplay area, wasn't anything that involved the maps or how you play the game. It is all about the computer AI in the game. It's flat out annoying and cheap. The AI has to be cheating in this game as there is no way any human could get the lucky rolls they get. They easily skip over your shops all the time, and get just the right rolls all the time to get where they need to go. They also seem to really pick on the player and only sort of pick on the other AI's. This gets very annoying after awhile, and can really frustrate the player. The game is still fun to play, but this is a game you play with other people to get the most enjoyment out of it. If you play with the AI like I did, it will bring you great frustration. It is why I actually didn't finish the main single player mode as I was playing maps over and over again and getting beaten again and again by this cheating AI. I can't stress this enough, play this game with friends, not the AI, unless you enjoy cheap AI tricks or a real challenge.
Story
There is no story to this game as it is pretty much just a board game, so this area gets a pass and isn't counted.
Graphics
You would think being a board game there wouldn't be much to the graphics and for the most part you are right when it comes to the board you are playing on. However, despite how these look, the backgrounds are where this game shines. In the back of each board, the background is themed to look like a particular location in either the Dragon Quest or Super Mario world. You can see familiar areas and small versions of these locations in the background as you are playing the board game. They are even slightly animated as well as you will see enemies, and other characters roaming around in these backgrounds. This shows they really did put some nice attention to detail, despite it being mainly in the background. While you will mainly be looking at the boards, the fact they put so much attention into the backgrounds is quite amazing. The boards while simple are nicely designed and appealing to look at, as they are often designed to resemble something that is related to the background. Your characters all look fine as well. They look like who they should be and are quite nicely detailed. They are all animated well, and the close up pictures you see whenever they are speaking to you look nice as well. While there still could have been a few more details thrown in there, as some of the backgrounds are a bit on the simple side and don't change as much as others, you will still be quite impressed I would say with the look of the game for what it is.
Sound
This is where this game really shines. The music is just wonderful, and you will find yourself humming it throughout most of your play time with the game. Each Dragon Quest level is filled with a musical tune that matches the level it is supposed to be representing, and the same goes with the Super Mario levels as well. If you enjoyed one or both of these series, these tunes will be instantly recognizable, and on top of that, remixed to fix a more modern day console. They won't be just the old sounds from back in the day, no no, these are updated versions for your favorite tunes. On top of that, this being a SquareEnix game means there is even some Mario RPG music in there in a few levels as an added treat. I will say, these are some tunes that would be worth listening to even after you are done playing the game, so give them a find if you can and listen to them for yourself. I highly recommend it!
Control
Not much to say about the controls for Fortune Street. They work properly and are very standard. You hold the wiimotes sideways instead of pointing them at the screen, so you do play this game like having a controller instead of doing all the motion controls. You can changes its orientation in the options to make it vertical if you wish to play one handed, but the two handed approach works just fine. Other than some tiny hiccups in trying to get characters to turn, when the arrows show diagonally when they get to crossroads, but you are pressing flat up, down, left, and right on your controller, which can be slightly confusing. Other than that, the controls are simple and done well, as you would expect in a simple to control game like this.
Replay Value
I would say replay value got effect like the gameplay section did up above. The replay value in this game actually is pretty high, but for different reasons. It is a board game, so the results will be different each and every time, which is very high for the game, the fact the AI will frustrate the heck out of you really does pull this down a little bit. Why would you want to come back to a game like that, if it was making you mad? Actually, you may want to come back to it at some point in the future as the game is still fun overall. As a matter of fact, the reason it stays so high as well is the fact this does appear to have great multiplayer opportunities. If you can get some friends together, this will be a great game for you all to play together and be quite competitive in at the same time. It is also very family friendly, so kids can play along with other friends or have a family night with this game. This is definitely a game to come back to at some point in the future and play again. Just keep in mind the frustration that can come in the single player game is you experience the cheating AI too often. Overall though, it is still very replayable with lots of friends to play along with you.
Overall, I would say Fortune Street, despite me getting frustrated enough to put the game away, is still a good game overall. It will bring frustrations though during single player, so let that be known. If you have some friends that are willing to play with you though, or parents if you are young enough as well and want a family game night that is not the usual board games, I would give this game a try. It still is a neat concept, and the music will keep you nicely entertained. Just be careful of that cheap AI now alright?!
Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Fortune Street an eight point five out of ten
Gameplay: 7
Story: N.A.
Graphics: 9
Sound: 10
Control: 9
Replay Value: 8
Overall: 8.5
