Tower Dream
| Tower Dream | |
|---|---|
 Cover art | |
| Developer(s) | C-Lab Crea-Tech[1] |
| Publisher(s) | ASCII[2] |
| Designer(s) | Hiroshi Miyaoka[3] Kazunori Orio[3] Kenji Yanagisawa[3] |
| Platform(s) | Super Famicom[2] |
| Release date(s) | |
| Genre(s) | Strategy with board game elements[2] |
| Mode(s) | Single-player[4] Multiplayer (up to 4 players[4]) |
Tower Dream (タワードリーム, "Tower Dream")[5] is a Super Famicom strategy video game that was released in 1996 to an exclusively Japanese market. The characters were designed by Tamakichi Sakura.
A sequel was released for the PlayStation in 1998.
Summary
In this video game, the player rolls a ten-sided die to place properties in the center of the gaming board, and uses Japanese currency in order to make towers that attract revenue from the other players.[4] By doing so, the player tries to make the other competitors perform as poorly as possible (even if it means bankruptcy). Four different kinds of Monopoly-like cards and a slot machine are included to make the game more unpredictable.[4]
Anime-style animation is used to show exaggerated emotions from pure joy to misery. Statistics for each character are held in the game's battery backup and the game functions almost like a perpetual world.
An included automatic save feature presents the player with an optional ability to resume play at the exact spot where the game was completed halted. That way, the player can either start a new game or complete a game that was halted by the console system being shut down. Some moves may be cancelled by the game if the player has already used up his or her turn for that round. If the player's first turn hasn't happened yet, then the game would start over new. Therefore, the optimal use of the automatic save feature would be within the player's turn but before he or she performs any action on the board.
The player can choose from many worlds to play from including America, Hong Kong, Tokyo, clown world, prehistoric world, horror film world, and lunar colony world. Hong Kong is the only level in the game to have two separate boards. Players can go from the lower board to the upper board and vice versa by using the special airplane icon. Buildings and towers look completely appropriate to the world that the game takes place in. Stone towers are used for the prehistoric world, which strongly resembles The Flintstones. The Hong Kong and Tokyo worlds both use Asian-style buildings. Swiss rolls, gingerbread houses, and other Japanese dessert items are used in the clown world.
Real estate trading
Properties/corporations
Once two properties are purchased side by side, a corporation can be started even if the properties belong to different players.[4] However, if a person buys a property that is between two corporations, then the stronger corporation will buy out the weaker corporation.[4] The shares of the weaker corporation becomes shares of the stronger corporation. People who have invested in the weaker corporation will receive monetary rebates.[4] The different corporations in this game include automobile companies, television stations, and even coffee shops. However, there can only be up to nine corporations on the board.[4] If they are all used up, then a player cannot start another corporation.[4]
Corporations that are even strength can decide the corporation that will cease to exist out of the two corporations that are merging into a single corporation. Since mergers between equal strength corporations don't really give an advantage to any player, the only consideration for who should be bought out should be based on pure strategic value (i.e., which corporation would benefit the most on the playing field). Players should remember that corporations can be resurrected if they are at least two free spaces on the board and there are not many corporations on the board.
Methods of victory
The most conventional way to win the game is to have the most amount of cash and the most expensive properties on the board when the number of turns remaining reaches zero. An alternative way to win is also considered when the three other players playing the game lose all their money and go bankrupt, making it so there is only one player left on the board with money. If the bankrupt player is the only human player in the game, the game ends prematurely as it is considered unfair for the other computer opponents to finish the game without the human player giving input. The other alternative way to determine a winner is when the entire board is covered with property from one corporation and players cannot buy any more property.[4]
Beneficial people
Item giver
Occasionally, the player bumps into a strange man in drag called Mr. Chance (ミスターチャンス). He is always carrying a cannabis-like object on him. He gives the player stuff that affects him or her on the video game board. Acquiring a pair of shoes force him or her to bounce back a square after finishing his or her move on the board while the Armor of Great Inaccuracy (装甲大きな誤りの) rounds the fees to the nearest thousand.[6] Other items include the pouch which deducts cash from his or her bank account for every step that he or she takes and the sword. Being stuck with the sword makes the player pay more money when he lands on a square that is owned by another player. Mr. Chance can be put to sleep by using a randomly placed card to temporarily stop his movement on the board.
Taxi
However, there is also a taxi that is found on most boards that acts as a rapid form of transportation. While inside the taxi, rolling a "nine" means moving ahead 18 spaces. Therefore, the number of steps a person takes inside a taxi is double to the number that he or she rolls. Instead of the player stepping into the taxi, the taxi swallows up the player. When the player arrives to his or her destination inside the taxi, the taxi spits him or her up and tries to find another player to be its passenger. It is suggested that the taxi operates on solar power because there is no fee involved in using the taxi unlike in real life.
See also
- Acquire, one of the board games that inspired this game
- Monopoly, the other board game that helped inspire this game
References
- ↑ Crea-Tech staff. ゲームカタログ [Game Catalog] (in Japanese). Crea-Tech. Retrieved May 27, 2012.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Game information reference". GameFAQs. Retrieved 2008-12-11.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Designer information". Netvigator. Retrieved 2008-12-18.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 "Rules of the game/# of players information". Netvigator. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
- ↑ "Japanese title". Nifty. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
- ↑ "Mr. Chance information". Netvigator. Retrieved 2008-12-18.