Itadaki Street, known in North America as Fortune Street, is going to arrive outside of Japan for the first time in the series’ history this December. What exactly does this mean for the Wii audience?  There are already a number of party games available on the console, but can the charm of of Mario, Slimes, and a hint of Monopoly be enough to pique the interest of gamers on the Wii?

The TGS demo area of Itadaki Street was, expectedly, packed with children and families looking to have some good old-fashioned family fun. To ruin this effect, I jumped ahead of the hour-plus line. In the demo area, I had a chance to play the game for a pretty extended period of time. Although there were multiple units set up in the booth, everything was set to single-player mode, so it was a bit difficult to get the full effect of the game, whose roots, even back to the Famicom version, point toward 2-4 player multiplayer as the definitive way to experience it. The single-player demo had the player choose from one of three pre-made Miis, while the computer controlled Toad and a blue Slime character.

Either I was missing something entirely, or there were simply no mini-games at all in this demo of Itadaki Street. After glancing over to the guy sitting next to me, I noticed that he never encountered any of them either. The demo was strictly focused on going around the very small game board based on the roll of a die and the purchasing of properties (a la Monopoly). Obviously, the more properties you own, the more money you can make. The player with the most money at the end of the game is the winner.

Yeah, none of these in the build that I played.

As Neal Ronaghan reported in his impressions from the E3 build of the title, Itadaki Street is one of those kind of titles that just does not demo well. While the game was very well put together and was extremely polished, I kept getting the feeling that the gameplay experience would be enhanced if I were playing with friends or family. In Japan, Itadaki Street will more than likely be able to reach the same audience that bought Mario Party and Wii Party. With the included brand of Dragon Quest, it will make it all the more appealing to the Japanese audience. However, the general unfamiliarity of Dragon Quest, coupled with the market that this title will likely appeal to (casual gamers and families), will make it a tough sell in North America.