I've played it enough to know mostly what's going on. Here are the basics, but I can answer followup questions if you've got them.
There are three game types:
1. Cycle-limited: Game ends when a player crosses finish line N times. It typically takes 20-30 minutes to around the board once, depdndinghow fast you set the CPU to play.
2. Time-limited: Game ends after a certain time limit has expired.
3. Bingo: Game ends when a player has completed their movie bingo card. This mode type tpyically takes 2-4 hours.
Doesn't matter which character you use. (I.e. Carrera's ability to fly does not give her any advantage.)
The board is split into an overworld and a dungeon. The overworld is mostly good spaces to land on, while the dungeon is mostly penalty spots.
As you go around the board, you'll collect cards. Some are good, some are bad, and some depend on the type of game you're playing.
Other cards like X2, X3, and spring are obviously good cards if you're playing the cycle limited game, as they'll let you double or triple your dice roll, or bounce ahead many spaces.
Cards like Swap are useful to trade away your bad cards for those more useful from another player. Likewise you can swap one of your Bingo movie lines for another player's line.
Cards like +1, +2, +3, +4, +5, and +6 are useful to land exactly where you need, such a movie house or shop.
Cards like Mystery are not unveiled until you reach Ogawa's house as the end of the cycle. They have very high point value though.
There are some curse cards that force you to only take one step at a timeor lose money with each step. These are especially bad to possess while in the dungeon.
And there are some challenge cards that allow you to bet your VIPER against another player in a game of chance.
I still don't know exactly what the teleca cards do when played, other than the obvious vocal recording. Ogawa pays top dollar for them though. Game is probably easiest if you trade away telecas early in the stage, and hold on to them as you get close to returning to Ogawa's house. Playing them seems to serve no purpose in the game mechanics other than to to pass your turn, which itself has almost no value.
VIPER is the form of currency in the game. You can go into negative VIPER by amassing penalties, and you can't buy anything until you're back in the positive. You'll also be forced to sell off cards and movies at shops in order to get back to positive.
The shop lets you buy new cards or sell the ones you don't find useful. Selling tends to be more useful as you generaly get enough good cards along the way and can sell the bad ones for more VIPER to buy movie cards if playing Bingo mode.
Movie shops let you buy and sell movie cards to try to complete your Bingo card. There's 20-25 movies in the game, each split into 5 parts, so five movies are "in play" duing any game. Silver cards are worth one part of a movie; Gold cards are worth all five movies. If the winner (non-CPU) has all five movie cards in a set, that movie becomes unlocked on the main menu. In Bingo mode, the winner can unlock up to five movies in a single game. Note that videos do not play on 64-bit versions of Windows.
When the game conditions are met, the scores are tallied to determine the winner. The winner isn't necessarily the player that crossed the finish line the most times (though it helps) or amassed the most movies (though it helps). A number of factors, such as VIPER held, value of cards and telecas in possession, value of individual movie cards in possession, and bonuses for the number of times around the board and for having horizontal, vertical, or diagonal Bingos on thier Bingo card. (Beward the CPU that is amassing a large VIPER reserve - it'll be the hardest to beat.) Mystery movie cards held by the winner at the end of the game also become unlocked in the main menu.
