Despite its inception in 1991, Itadaki Street remained in Japan until now. Fortune Street is best described as a more complex version of Monopoly. As in that famous board game, players run the board attempting to earn money, buy property, and charge rent to opponents who land on said property. Fortune Street takes this to the next level by adding a stock market. Now, players can invest in not only their own properties, but others', which increases the properties' value and thus raises the rent. When players land on owned property, both the owner and investors receive cash.

Though similar to Monopoly, everything is more complex. Rather than traversing a single loop around the board to receive pay, players must move around multiple branches, collecting one of each card suit before returning to the bank. Players can choose directions when coming to an intersection. Payouts are based on the value of your holdings. The game ends when a player reaches a set net worth or all others players go bankrupt.

Players can invest in their property when landing on their own squares and buy stocks when passing the bank. A range of money can be invested rather than set amounts for buying houses. Players must stay aware of who has their fingers in which part of the board, lest somebody dump their stock and thus drop the value of their own holdings. For the more competitive Monopoly fans, players can make property trades or even hold auctions. Chance cards can give a bonus or throw a wrench into things. These cards are selected from a grid, which adds yet another layer of strategy to the game since chaining cards on the grid leads to even more bonuses.

Fortune Street is played with the Wii Remote in either horizontal or vertical orientation, and players can roll the die either with a button press or by shaking the remote. The game is menu and text heavy. The interface can be a bit clunky, even the Square Enix representative admitted, such as when the game always asks to confirm your move, even if that is your only option.

Players can choose from a wide variety of Mario and Dragon Quest characters or from their collection of Miis. Miis can be accessorized with items and clothing from the two franchises after earning money and buying them.

The Mario-themed boards span everything from 8-bit Mario to Mario Galaxy, including Yoshi's Island, and even Mario Kart and Mario Baseball. The Dragon Quest representation is similar, featuring locales from games up through Dragon Quest IX, such as the world map from that game and the phantom ship from Dragon Quest III. Each board has a different gimmick and boards may transform when players land on certain tiles. For instance, the Starflight Express from DQ9 may transport a section of the board, sometimes even leaving players stranded. The soundtrack also takes from a wide swath of games new and old.

To be clear, despite its overall appearance, Fortune Street shares very little with the Mario Party series. It is strictly an electronic board game. There are a few mini-games, which are triggered by landing on casino spaces, but these games are mostly single-player games of chance like slots, or with ones minimal interaction like a memory game and a wheel-spinning game. I did see a multiplayer Slime-racing minigame, but you only got to choose your Slime (like betting on horses) and hope for the best. These games are not available outside of the main game, not that you'd want to play them anyway.

Fortune Street is most certainly the type of game that's better played with friends, and besides local multiplayer, there is Wi-Fi play. Like Monopoly, games of Fortune Street can take a long time to play, especially with the extra strategy of the stock market. In my demo at Nintendo, we played what was supposed to be one of the shorter boards -- we didn't finish the game in our two-hour slot. The larger boards reportedly take on the order of six hours to complete.

If you're looking for something active along the lines of Mario Party, you will not find satisfaction in Fortune Street. However, if you're looking for a Monopoly-style game, Fortune Street is definitely the way to go. The game's stock system even serves a good primer on a few of the subtle effects of investments and financial systems. The inclusion of the Mario and Dragon Quest franchises make it far more interesting than anything Uncle Pennybags could ever offer.