Game Brings the Family Together on Fortune Street

If you work hard, invest your money and make smart choices, soon you’ll be making a bundle on Fortune Street. The new virtual board game for the Wii console invites players of all ages to try something new: navigating the stock and real estate markets to maximize their wealth and take control of the board.

The game will have everyone in the family having fun together and competing to see who will be living large in the living room. It lets players choose from more than 20 characters from different worlds.

Mario, Princess Peach and Bowser are among those representing the Mushroom Kingdom, while Angelo, Bianca and Slime are some of the Dragon Quest characters in this Square Enix-developed game.

Players can also opt to play as their own Mii characters, and can even choose custom clothing and accessories once they earn enough stamps. Mii characters can dress as ninjas, be surrounded by three shells or even dress as Mario or other characters from the game.

“During the holidays people like to get together with friends and family members to play games,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Fortune Street lets everyone have fun while buying, selling and trading property to grow their bank accounts.”

Players move around one of more than 15 game boards based on popular Mushroom Kingdom and Dragon Quest locales. They buy shops and collect symbols that can be traded in at the bank for promotion and gold.

When other players land on a shop, the owner collects a shopping fee. When players own all of the shops in one district, the property value goes up and so do the shopping fees.

Fortune Street includes an easier beginner setting (Easy rules) that helps players learn the rules as well as a more advanced setting. The Standard rules introduce more challenges, new strategies and the option for players to invest their earnings in the stock market to maximize their moolah.

Up to four players can compete at once. Even players who are far away can join in the fun. As long as all players have a copy of the game, they can get together via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection using a broadband Internet connection.

Fortune Street (known as Itadaki Street in Japan) is the ninth installment in the series. This is the first time an Itadaki Street game has been published in North America, according to Nintendo.

The company says Wii features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access.