Nintendo have just released Boom Street in Australia and although the cover looks like some strange version of Mario Party, it's actually far from it. Boom Street is a virtual board game that is oozing with Nintendo goodness that combines elements from popular games such as Monopoly and the Game of Life which creates an interactive board game experience on your TV.

Allowing up to four players locally and even an online mode, Boom Street definitely ticks all the right boxes for not only paying homage to the original board game premise but creating a uniquely colourful and entertaining experience as you attempt to "strike gold" with the markets on Boom Street! As you become involved in property purchases, gamble with the market and even engage in takeovers, it's like your part of some strange cartoon like Wall Street that actually works.

Key Features

However the biggest issue with Boom Street is time. Unfortunately like real-world board games such as Monopoly, Boom Street definitely requires a fair of chunk of time to successfully complete. You easily need a couple of hours to spare which may cause some issues for finding online players.

But if you can push the time factor to the side than Boom Street will definitely have you coming back for more and more because every game that you play is different which opens up a healthy dose of replay value. It should also be mentioned that Boom Street contains over 15 interactive gaming boards but best of all, this collection of board games is complied in one accessible disc and no clean-up is required at the end.

Like Monopoly, players must choose their own avatars to interact with the board game and this can be one of Nintendo's very own characters or one of your custom designed Mii's. Once all the players are setup, the next step is to roll the dice which allows you to move through the colourful world.

The goal is to purchase as many properties as possible in order to extract rent from your opponents. Unlike building houses on your properties, you need to build shops and when players land on your shops, they then pay for your shopping.

Properties are also colour coded so if you manage to purchase all properties of the same colour, this then increases the shopping and hence the revenue which you are given. Properties can also be traded with other players as well. There are even "chance" cards incorporated into the game to help spice things up and this does create an element of unknown into the gameplay.

As the game sounds more and more like Monopoly, there are a few twists and turns added to Boom Street. Just like the Game of Life, Boom Street employs a variety of optional routes on the board game which allows players to bypass certain areas of the game. This does create an element of strategy for Boom Street.

But the biggest difference with Boom Street and the aforementioned game is the ability to purchase stocks and the more gamers that purchase these stocks, the higher the value of them become. Stocks can be increased by renovating your properties which does cost money but if an opponent should land on it, your revenue increases considerably.

I also commend Square Enix for the ability to choose AI opponents but compared to real people, it does feel a little too generic playing against them but if you're short of numbers or want to play solo, the option is there. It's definitely a good way to learn the game anyway.

Graphics/Audio

Apart from the unique gaming, characters play an integral role to the fun factor and fortunately Nintendo allowed Square Enix, the developers of Boom Street access to their diverse collection of characters from Super Mario and Dragon Quest. These two universes also influence the graphical worlds of these 15 board games as well and needless to say, the gaming environments look quite impressive. Animation is smooth and there's some great colourful special effects used to spice things up. Music even comes from the aforementioned Nintendo titles as well! Sound effects are boppy and fun that enhance the fun gameplay.

Final Thoughts

If you're looking for a game for the whole family to play or you're a lover of well made board games, than you really should investigate Boom Street for the Nintendo Wii. Not only do the developers pay homage to the board games of yesteryear but it has this real 21st century feel to it, especially with the smooth animation and fun characters.

Consider it the Mario Party of the board game world!