'The Game of Life' Joins EA's Lineup of Board Games
posted by Eli Hodapp on August 13th, 2009 5:11 PM EDT in $4.99, Board, Games, Reviews, iPhone games, iPod touch games
The first version The Game of Life [App Store] was originally created by Mr. Milton Bradley himself all the way back in 1860 after his lithography business started to dry up, since his major product was a portrait of Abraham Lincoln without his beard. Honest Abe grew a beard, the portrait was no longer an accurate portrayal of the then soon to be president, so out of desperation Milton moved on to other projects such as printing a few copies of "The Checkered Game of Life" that eventually went on to start the Milton Bradley empire and turn his brand in to a household name.
100 years later, the Milton Bradley executives decided they needed to do something special for their 100th anniversary and asked game inventor Reuben Klamer to come up with something to commemorate the occasion. Inspired by the original, Klamer developed the first version of what would become the modern Game of Life. Since then the game has been updated numerous time, gameplay elements have been added and/or tweaked, and many spinoffs have been made where the same basic game has been applied to the Family Guy, Pokemon, and even Sailor Moon universes among others.
In The Game of Life players travel around the game board landing on spaces that simulate the various events one goes through in their life from graduating highschool to eventually retiring. On the way you come across jobs, lawsuits, children, property, and life tiles. Life tiles represent major life events that are revealed at the end of the game, each rewarding different amounts of money to add to your retirement total. The player that ends their life with the most money wins the game.
As expected, the board game translates very well to the iPhone just like all of EA's other board game titles. Everything is controlled through a simple touch interface, and spinning the wheel to determine how far your game piece is moved is done by swiping your finger across the screen. It features single player with up to three AI opponents for four players total, and you can use one device to play multiplayer. It's unfortunate that there isn't any kind of WiFi multiplayer like Scrabble [App Store], but I suppose there is always hope for future updates.
My favorite thing about the iPhone version of The Game of Life is that you can fast forward through the turns of AI opponents. While playing games like this by yourself is hardly as much fun as playing against other people, not having to sit through full-length terms of computer players does a lot to make the game more enjoyable. At $4.99, the iPhone version is significantly cheaper than any version of the physical board game, so if The Game of Life is your thing, don't hesitate on picking this one up.
App Store Link: The Game of Life, $4.99
I really enjoyed the mobile game so I'm definitely picking this one up as well.
YESSSSS
*sigh* The old "The item you've requested isn't currently available in the New Zealand store" trick. Can't find an international version either.
Anyone know what countries this has actually been released in?
Where, for the love of Pete, is RISK! Come on EA/Hasbro!
Try Lux
Or Strategery
Will it allow me to marry a man, or can I only build a nuclear family?
Well, since the picture above shows two pink characters in a car…
It's in the New Zealand store now. Here's the link (and for everywhere besides the US too.)
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=327104307&mt=8
Ah, but is it the classic version I had as a kid with the Bankrupt space and the Poor House, or that "updated" (bleh!) version they made 15 years ago where it's replaced by Countryside Acres?
If EA or another publisher is reading this…
Can I please get Family Feud for the iPhone?? I have a lot of the game-shows but this one is one I really, really want.
Chris
Sigh…After the original board game got rid of "Your uncle dies and you inherit a skunk farm" and the Poor Farm at the end, it never was quite the same for me.
Yeah, given that this is all virtual, having an option to play the older version of the game would be good. That's the version I remember. ..@Jim, you can only have a nuclear family – if you're playing as a guy, when you hit the marriage square it automatically adds a pink wife. You could always pretend it's a guy who likes pink. :p
But really, the main thing I like is being able to spin that wheel. The wheel was iconic, and they got the mechanics of that perfect. That's a lot of nostalgia right there. I wish you could have a more birds-eye viewpoint of the board though (without having to explicitly switch to "look" mode) ..I frankly lose track of where I am, ie: how close to the start/end. The board layout with those funky plastic hills was a lot of what I fondly remember about The Game of Life – but from this low viewpoint, they're hard to see.
"The player that ends their life with the most money wins the game."
so, what the game tells us is that the purpose of life is to get as much money as possible?
If we should have one game about life on the iPhone, I think that game should be game called "alter ego":
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alter_Ego_(video_game)
"The player that ends their life with the most money wins the game."
So, Can you have a coffin? In the end of life? Maybe the game should feature a graveyard with a text writing "Here Rest the Player who won the most money of the game" LOL
Straight to point, I've played this game of life on my previous mobile Nokia, and l liked it a lot, but i don't want to spend that much. I would rather buy for less than $1.99.
I would like more board games to come on iphone, like the Jones the Fast Lane from Sierra (PC version). That's the good game of Life… If anyone still know about this game.
Cheers