The Game of Life: Special Edition

The Classic Board Game The Game of Life Now Available on GameCube

• JP release: 1st May 2003
• EU release: N/A
• NA release: N/A
• Developer: Takara
• Publisher: Takara
• NGC Magazine Score: N/A
• Mods Used: Widescreen Hack

The Japanese Game of Life video games are very difficult from the mindless board game we know over here, so much theme and extra stuff is added that it could really be its own thing – but at the end of the day, it’s still a roll (or spin) and move board game that gives you very little control over what happens.

You move across the rather nice board from baby stage up through adulthood, with more board spaces added over time. Most spaces are generic event spaces which make random things happen with animations and a little story as to why. These little bits are nice, but get tiresome fast, especially as you get a screen showing the changes after this, which slows down the game immensely. Later on, there’s a basic dating sim (you can even create lovers in the character creator), but doing well requires being lucky and landing in many of the right spaces.

There are also some minigames, including one that claims to be based on Choro Q (the franchise sometimes known as Penny Racers or Gadget Racers), yet this was just a basic car minigame where you drive the standard Game of Life car with pegs. There seems to be a lot less focus on butt UFOs this time.

While this is certainly a good way of adapting a board game to a video game, enhancing the original with things only possible with the board game forward, it still doesn’t transform it into a good game.

Poor

Compared to the previous PS series, it’s safe to say that the power has increased quite a bit. Of course, there are various rules, not to mention the graphics, so it’s the perfect game to kill time. The development of Game of Life Island is also interesting, and you can make pretty cute characters with 3D character makeup.

Amazon JP Customer (Translated)

Remake or remaster?

These games are still getting made.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to buy The Game of Life: Special Edition.

Europe

Japan

North America

GameCube Games by Date

2001: Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2002: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2003: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2004: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2005: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2006: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2007: Mar, Jun, Aug

board game game of life gamecube Takara