The Game of Life

"Pretty good, for a board-video game."

I was bored one day. My brother bought a Playstation and I had no games. I went to a book/record/game store. I found this used for about 5 bucks. I was trying to decide between this and Final Fantasy VIII for 15 bucks. Since this was considerably cheaper, I bought it (Note to angry Final Fantasy fan boys: I bought FFVIII a week later). My friend told me this game was supposed to suck, but I liked it! The interseting, well rendered animations for the spaces you land on are interesting.

Story: 10/10
The story departs in no way from the orignal board game. You have to be the richest player by the time you retire to win. You do things like getting married, getting a job (and being fired from said job), paying taxes, everything! Also, at certain points of the game, you jump to the next decade (starting from the 50's and ending in the year 2000). Every decade has a different song and a different car you ride in, each matching each era perfectly.

Gameplay: 9/10
The gameplay is pretty much the same, except for the new, ''Get a Life'' mode. When you land on the Pay Day square, you can either collect your cash or play a minigame, which I found pretty forgetable. Also, instead of having houses having a set price, the game randomly picks the price, or, if you're lucky like me, you'll inherit the house! But one thing: How come whenever I have twins, they are always boys?

Sound: 7/10
The narrator speaks so much, and reads you every little line, you'll feel like taking a gun and stabbing him in the back, right in front of his own eyes! Also, your people don't speak, they grunt and speak gibberish (And in the intro and the ''Talent show'' square, you'll see a guy doing an Elvis impersonation, which is kinda funny to see).

Music: 7/10
The music changes every decade you travel through, and most of it is decent (And in the year 2000, there is a retro-futuristic song that sounds like it came from a bad Jetsons spoof), although very repetitive. I couldn't wait to get past the 50's so that stupid song would be gone for good.

Graphics: 10/10
Good lord. For such an unheard-of and extremely underrated game, this has amazing graphics! The CG cutscenes are fantastic, the board's very detailed features jump off the screen, and it's not jaggedy!

Buy or Rent?: If you can, buy this game. If you're looking for a nice party game besides Mario Party (Don't even think about Nicktoons party or Disney party), this is the one. Although we all know it will be etrnally eclipsed by the zillion Monopoly games on the market, at least we are assured that the game of life had it's own decent game (And a few sequels, to boot!).

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/13/03