Let's face it, Monopoly is undoubtedly the king of all board games. Long and yet hopelessly addicting, there's no better way for a group of friends of family members to spend the hours of a rainy day together then gathered around the Monopoly board. One of the most special aspects of the brand is of course the way that nearly all kinds of franchises and ideas can fit into one of the specialty Monopoly boxes, and Nintendo is apparently no different.
Upon seeing it in a recent issue of Nintendo Power I knew I had to have it. After all I am a huge Monopoly fan as well as a huge Nintendo fan; it seemed to be a match made in heaven. All of your favorite characters make appearances; from Kirby to Yoshi, Link to Fox McCloud, the gang's all here. Each major game series has it's own property set, and I'll list them in order starting at cheapest and going all the way up to boardwalk; Waluigi and Wario; Slippy Toad, Falco Lombardi and Fox McCloud; Meta Knight, King Dedede and Kirby; Metroid, Ridley and Samus Aran; Toad, Princess Peach and Yoshi; Dixie Kong, Diddy Kong and Donkey Kong; Ganondorf, Princess Zelda and Link; finally, who else but Luigi and Mario.
Mario Kart, the Blue Falcon, Kirby's Warpstar and an Airwing replace the traditional four railroads, although fans might be upset that Epona isn't anywhere to be seen in this regard. A 1-Up Mushroom space takes over the Income Tax spot and a Treasure Chest Deposit replaces the Luxury Tax space while a Piranha Plant and Warp Pipe replace the Electric Company and Water Works respectivly. ? Blocks replace the traditional Chance space while Coin Block spaces take the place of Community Chest areas. Finally the pewter tokens are different; Mario's Cap, Link's Shield, Link's Iron Boots, a DK Barrel, a Koopa Shell and a classic NES controller.
Diving a bit deeper, some of the parts could honestly be improved. Aside from the property spaces the other franchises are almost non-existent, so after a while you feel like you're playing Mariopoly with a little dash of other Nintendo franchises. Instead of Coin Block spaces, why not Legend of Zelda treasure chests? How about do away with the Koopa Shell and Iron Boots in favor of tokens from other series, like Kirby's Star Rod or Samus in Morph Ball form? The different denominations of money and Coin Block and ? Block cards ALL have nothing but Mario on them, which is sad as this Monopoly should be a celebration of all of Nintendo's franchises. And although they aren't truly Nintendo franchises, I know many fans will be disappointed with the lack of Nintendo staples like the Earthbound and Fire Emblem series'. This isn't to mention that a Piranha Plant as the Electric Company makes no sense at all; where's Pikachu?
These, overall, are minor complaints and let me make it clear that I am still very happy with the game and would still buy it over again knowing all this, but my point is that for die-hard Nintendo fans like myself something comes to mind upon inspecting the game: a little more creativity could go along way into making this truly NINTENDOPOLY and not Mariopoly.
The Bottom Line: If you are a Nintendo fan and like Monopoly, this is for you without a doubt. Monopoly game collectors shouldn't miss this opportunity either.
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