Hop In Your Convertible And Cruise Through The Decades

The CD-ROM Game of LIFE is an instant hit with whoever plays it. The remake of the familiar board game is cleverly constructed with excitement throughout it's interactive animation.

You ready to play? Let's go! First you get to sign in and choose which color you would like your convertible to be. Then you get to pick out which character will portray you in the game---there are 12 to choose from, six females and six males. You can go for the bleached blonde look, the sexy I'm so wonderful look, the slightly odd look, the tall, dark and handsome(or pretty)look, etc. Now that everybody is all signed in (you can have up to six players for this game), it's time to "Get A LIFE!"

The idea of the game (in case you have never played) is to go through life, getting married and having kids if luck so has it, going to college or starting right to work. You also get to deal with all of life's fun happenings (like stock market crashes, car crashes, storm damage to your house, taxes, more taxes, and other money depleting events) as you move along the board. You can collect money in an assortment of ways besides passing over "pay day." Your goal is to "retire" with the most money in (hopefully) Millionaire Estates or to Countryside Acres.

This was a highly shortened description of the game, which can realistically take an hour or more to complete with 3 to 4 players. The fun does not stop, the "competition" can be keen, and you never know what luck may bring you along the road of LIFE!

Some of the innovative things I like about the CD-ROM version of LIFE are as follows:

*You can choose between playing the "Classic Board Game," which pretty faithfully follows the rules of the original board game. In the Classic Mode you collect LIFE Tiles as you move along the roadway, redeeming them for cash at the end of the game.

The other option is to play the "Enhanced Game," which replaces the LIFE Tiles with a variety of "Life's Little Games." These games are great fun and you never know which one you will have to play---luck and chance are what these games are all about, and they kind of remind you of arcade games. There are eight of these games in all. You may make money with the games (up to $100,000 or more), or you may lose all! That's LIFE!!! If you do not get a game you may instead get a chance to take "revenge" on another player (by trading salaries, or by taking a certain amount of money from each one, etc. Also, with this mode, you get to spin to determine the price of your house (which is sold back to the Bank at the end of the game for a gain OR a loss. The goal is the same---retire with the most money!

*You have the amazing option of Hosting A Network Game -- You can play with your friends or those who know your IP address. You and five other people can play over the internet. Likewise, you can Join A Network Game if you know a player's IP address. You and the other players have to be connected to the internet (this goes without saying!) and all players need to have the CD-ROM LIFE disk installed.

In addition to playing with others via the internet, you can go into "Chat Mode," where you can send messages to the people you are playing with. The program is also set up so that if you hit Function Keys F1 through F12, you can send preset taunt sounds to the other players during the game.

*You can save games (up to seven of them!) and go back later to finish them. You are not able to save any games played over the internet.

*The animation and graphics are well done. The characters are presented with humor--for example, when you "get married" you wait out at the curb in your convertible and your hunny comes cartwheeling out of the church, flying up into the air to land in the seat next to you, and then gives you a killer smile and wink. Pretty cool and funny.

*New to this version of LIFE, is adding decades to the road that you move along. What is special about this is that the program plays the music that was popular in each decade. So lets say you drive into the 70's, you will hear music from that decade, so crank up your volume and enjoy the whole effect. The game continues into the year 2000, so it definitely current~~!

*After everyone reaches retirement and monies are totaled out, each animated player and their animated family gets to have their picture taken for prosterity. It is funny to see the "gang" smiling for all its worth!

*You can Zoom in to just see your car on the squares of the road, and you can Zoom out to see the entire game board and where all the cars are along the roadway of LIFE. This is a nice feature. Kids may be able to relate better to what position everybody is in if you can show them the whole board and point out all the cars to them.

The Game of LIFE is great fun and you need to experience it "live and in person" to really appreciate the effort that went in to the making of this remake.

Hasbro has a website where you can get additional information and check out some demo's. The site is at: http://www.hasbro-interactive.com
If you want more information of playing the Game of LIFE online, then go to their site at: http://www.games.com

Heard enough? Good!! Now GO GET A LIFE!!!!