Momotaro with a very good Xbox debut, but doesn't do enough to make itself the superior Japanese party/board game.
You are helped along by cards you collect that speed up your train (increase the number of dice rolled) or cards that give you some kind of advantage in the activities in the game or to foil your opponent in some way. For example, the "Onara Card" which can call on a farting superhero to blow away all your opponents to a random place on the map, should they be getting closer to the destination than you. There are also a smattering of minigames that add to the coffers of the winner. Depending on the length of the game, which you decide, it can be a simple 1 - 2 hour jaunt all the way up to a marathon game between hardcore players that can eat up an entire weekend.
However, despite even having a version encompassing North America (Momotaro Dentetsu USA) a few years ago, the game has never seen the light of day outside of Japan. Until now, the game could only be played on a Sony or Nintendo system. Momotarou Dentetsu 16 Gold marks the first time the series has been on a Microsoft system.
It's the same fun time killing Momotaro, but it has a couple of drawbacks (as long as you don't count reading Japanese as one):
- No Live support. I would have thought this to be a no-brainer considering the nature of the game, having someone to play with when it's just you and it going a long way to endear the 360 version as the superior version of the game as compared to the Wii version (which also left out online). However, due to one reason or another, it isn't here.
- Totally random events that screw you over or give opponents an advantage despite doing nothing to deserve it or to keep it fun for everyone. For example, there can be a dead heat for first place going into the final year of the game, but all of a sudden, a train thief comes and steals ALL of your money. Is that fun?
- King Bombi and his money draining nature can totally kill the fun of the game for one player, especially if he transports you off the map and takes you to "Bombilas" in which every space you take to escape sucks hundreds of millions of yen out of your account, leaving you a couple billion in the hole *if* you make it out.
- Bland achievements: You can get 100 points from playing one game of standard MomoDen if you win and don't get Bombi in the course of the game and you can get an extra 50 points if you win in the 3 year rush mode...which takes about 35 - 40 minutes. There are other achievements which are just too tedious to do...such as playing a 100 year game (the equivalent of 40 hours devoted to ONE round of a board game) for 50 points or getting 1 trillion yen for 100 points. With the wealth of things to achieve in the game from buying up all the property at one station to buying expensive 200 million yen properties in the central Tokyo station areas, they really could have worked on it a bit more.
I give it a 7/10 for it being a fun party game but points taken off for not expanding past being a party game, uninspired achievements, and the wide "reversal of fortune" swings that have the potential of ruining the fun of the game for certain players which I hope are brought under control in the next installment.