Fortune Street for Wii-Say wha?!

[YoshiM]

Tonight I received an email from Nintendo advertising this new video board game called "Fortune Street", containing characters from the Mario games, Dragon Warrior and such. I followed the link and watched.

What the heck...it's like Monopoly but seemingly more complex with the ability to invest along with changing board shapes, power ups and more. I have no idea how I feel about this game or what to think of it. With the lineup of characters and the mixing of concepts, I...I just don't know. Maybe it's because I had a long day and the brain is too tired to wrap itself around this title, but it's just out there for me.

Anyone else have thoughts on this? Could it be fun? Could it be a sleeper hit?

[Aussie2B]

I'm just amazed that an Itadaki Street title is coming to the US. Definitely wasn't expecting that to ever happen.

This is actually a very long running series in Japan, so the concept and character lineups themselves are old news to me. I have no idea myself if the games are any fun, but I guess if they've been so successful in Japan, then they can't be terrible.

[JSoup]

What I particularly like about the Itadaki Street series is it solved a problem I have with the Mario Party series. You've got a crazy little board full of adventure and wonder, and four guys throwing power ups at each other as they make their way around in this battle for stars. A battle that is interrupted every few minutes with an annoying ass mini-game.

Most of the Itadaki Street games I've played didn't have mini-games, and if they did, they were simple 'choose the thing' type games that took less than a second to resolve. It's basically Monopoly with Nintendo characters.

[Jorpho]

Could it be a sleeper hit?

Come now, when was the last time something with Mario's name slapped upon it was a "sleeper hit"?

A better question might be: if it really takes off, will an English translation of the version with the Final Fantasy characters be released on PSN?

[RP2A03]

I remember hearing about this some time ago, but, apparently, I quickly forgot about. After reading the reviews, I must say that this game looks to be quite intriguing. It seems to be kind of like Monopoly, except that it is way more complex and involves far more plotting and planning and market manipulation. It is definitely on my want list now.

[TonyTheTiger]

but I guess if they've been so successful in Japan, then they can't be terrible.

Sorry, I had to.

[DDCecil]

I've spent a little time with Itadaki Street 2. Not sure what I was doing, but the slime board was a neat little surprise. I'll pick up the Wii version one of these days and hopefully it'll all make sense.

[Streetball 21]

Tonight I received an email from Nintendo advertising this new video board game called "Fortune Street", containing characters from the Mario games, Dragon Warrior and such. I followed the link and watched.

What the heck...it's like Monopoly but seemingly more complex with the ability to invest along with changing board shapes, power ups and more. I have no idea how I feel about this game or what to think of it. With the lineup of characters and the mixing of concepts, I...I just don't know. Maybe it's because I had a long day and the brain is too tired to wrap itself around this title, but it's just out there for me.

Anyone else have thoughts on this? Could it be fun? Could it be a sleeper hit?

I'm so tempted to go buy this. However, I am just as confused as you are lol...

[Aussie2B]

Sorry, I had to.

Can you name any series that's been around for 20 years and gets great sales and high praise but is still completely awful for those entire 20 years? Because I can't.

[xelement5x]

A better question might be: if it really takes off, will an English translation of the version with the Final Fantasy characters be released on PSN?

My wife saw this info about Fortune Street the other day, and told me that the Command Board game in Kingdoms Hearts:Birth By Sleep is just like what she saw of Fortune Street. Not the same game exactly but she was surprised to know that it was such a long running series in Japan as well.

[TonyTheTiger]

Can you name any series that's been around for 20 years and gets great sales and high praise but is still completely awful for those entire 20 years? Because I can't.

Well I happen to think Dragon Quest is archaic, unintuitive, and stale to the point of near frustration. And yet it practically gets a national holiday in Japan. So...yeah, that was pretty much what I was getting at. Itagaki Street may very well be a fantastic series. But I don't see the correlation. I don't think huge success in Japan is necessarily correlated to anything other than whether or not a game is successful in Japan.

[Mayhem]

NintendoLife reviewed Fortune Street and gives it 8/10...

[InsaneDavid]

NintendoLife reviewed Fortune Street and gives it 8/10...

Thanks for the link. I'm actually watching Cornshaq play the game unrehearsed with some friends - looks like I'll be buying this one.

[Aussie2B]

Well I happen to think Dragon Quest is archaic, unintuitive, and stale to the point of near frustration. And yet it practically gets a national holiday in Japan. So...yeah, that was pretty much what I was getting at. Itagaki Street may very well be a fantastic series. But I don't see the correlation. I don't think huge success in Japan is necessarily correlated to anything other than whether or not a game is successful in Japan.

Well, my point is that, personal feelings aside, for a series to last that long and see that level of success, more people than not must feel that at least some of the games are high quality. Dragon Quest is well-loved in Japan, and it's only getting more and more popular in the US, which is probably why Nintendo would consider bringing over this version of Itadaki Street, with Dragon Quest characters, to the US (and why they published Dragon Quest IX themselves in the US and even did a big Dragon Quest event at Nintendo World in NYC). And in fairness to Dragon Quest, you can't call at least the first game archaic and stale, considering it was new and innovative for its time and inspired just about every Japanese RPG that came later. Not that I can't relate to not liking mega-popular franchises, but I accept that my view is in the minority. And even if they're not my cup of tea, a hugely popular series is generally still playable. It's not like it's going to be like Action 52 or something, so that's what I was getting at about it not being terrible if it's so popular.

[TonyTheTiger]

Well, yeah. I wasn't implying that Dragon Quest doesn't function or outright crashes on a regular basis. But games that do are on a whole other level of "terrible" and are never really at issue. It's almost pointless to bring that up as an issue though when somebody says a game is "terrible." If a game is terrible like Action 52 is terrible that'll be readily apparent.

[JSoup]

Can you name any series that's been around for 20 years and gets great sales and high praise but is still completely awful for those entire 20 years? Because I can't.

Give or take five games and not even those if a good portion of the internet is to be believed.

[Niku-Sama]

this just showed up yesterday at work, does any one have any input on the game?
it looks interesting, definitly doesent look like a game that will well well and havent sold a single copy yet. it kind of seems like a trial thing to test the waters to be honest considering the limited number of copies we got as well.
i can see some potental of it being a good game as well as a rarity but i am not sure if i want to spend $50 or if i want to risk waiting for a price drop and not being able to get the game new ever.

its something i would turn my wii on for......hasnt been on in over a year, xbox in over 2, PS3 ..... constantly

[Emperor Megas]

Can you name any series that's been around for 20 years and gets great sales and high praise but is still completely awful for those entire 20 years? Because I can't.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms?

[calistarwind]

I bought this game just the other day and I have to say it is incredibly fun. If you like monopoly with extras, then you will like this game. The best way to play though is everything on a higher speed because all the characters have their own sayings so it can take up to 2 hrs to play one game.
You go around the board buying up property and collecting card types, spade, diamond, heart, club. Once you get all the card types you try to pass the bank which gives you a bonus payout and option to buy stocks, if you own stocks in an area, regardless if someone owns property there you gain interest. In between all of this there are squares which bring up a very brief mini-game to play. Sometimes it is just you and sometimes it is everyone playing. There are tons of board designs to choose from as well. The goal is to gain as much money as you can to meet the goal amount. You also have an option to buy someone elses property when you land on it at a slightly higher value, so it does add a nice challenge as well.
This game is not getting a lot of press regardless of Mario being on the cover, but I do suggest picking it up if you have someone you like to play board game with.

[Mayhem]

For anyone outside of the US, I believe it's called "Boom Street" instead.