United Gamer Online (UGO)

by Mike Smith
July 23 10:00 A.M.
A new release from one of the industry’s largest publishers is shooting up the video game charts, but it’s not the space marines of Halo or the jocular star-collecting Mario brothers who are sucking in gamers. Instead, it’s a title based on an old board game: one those same console fanatics probably have gathering dust at the back of the closet.

Risk: Factions is the latest in a string of these chiefly downloadable, low-priced board game spin-offs. Rather than Risk’s usual world-domination schtick -- which could make for an over-long, unwieldy experience on a game console -- Factions gives players shorter, bite-sized missions to complete, setting them loose on smaller, fictional continents. It packs a graphical facelift that introduces animated zombies, barfing cats, and tongue-in-cheek cut-scenes. Games can easily run their course in under 30 minutes. In short, it’s Risk: ADD Edition.

Flippant though its presentation might be, Factions is going down well even with Risk purists: it’s scoring healthily at review aggregation site Metacritic.com, with much of the criticism stemming from the comparative lack of single-player content. Somehow, we doubt that’ll bother board game fans too much.
Monopoly’s next up for a similar treatment, also at the hands of EA. Releasing this October, Monopoly Streets promises to give gamers a unique view of the Monopoly board -- from ground level, by creating a living, breathing world that’ll evolve as you play. Make a good purchase, and you’ll see your headquarters swell and become more ornate; get soaked, and it’ll crumble aloing with your bank balance. It’ll also feature a no-frills mode for those looking for the classic Monopoly experience.

If that all sounds a little too...modern, more traditional takes on parlor classics are finding healthy consumer interest, too. Take Carcassonne, renowned winner of the prestigious Spiel des Jahres award in 2001: a deceptively simple game where players take turns to lay tiles that connect to form roads, cities, and fields. Just like Scrabble or Monopoly, its touchscreen-friendly tiles and turn-based gameplay make it a natural fit for the iPhone and iPad. Throw your device in your pocket, and it’ll update you whenever your opponent makes a move. Nothing more convenient than that.

Do you have a favorite board game-to-video game conversion? Let us know in the comments.