Review: Monopoly
by Staff Writer
November 30, 2009
Overview
Classic monopoly is now on the iPhone. Everyone seemingly knows Monopoly, and there have been different versions for just about everything. Now the classic Monopoly from Baltic Ave to Marvin Gardens and finally off to Board Walk you can play on the go. Pass Go, collect $200, and try to make as many Monopolies as you can to bankrupt your opponents. Try to make monopolies by collecting all of the properties of a certain color, and the values increase as you move around the board.
Features
Monopoly includes classic monopoly gameplay. The controls are all tap except for shake to roll the dice. Most every action is a tap away which is great. Three AI difficulty levels are included, and you can play in five different rooms as backgrounds. Local online play is included for wifi and bluetooth. Also the game saves your local progress for each device that was playing. You can edit game rules a little, to add auctions, edit free parking, and the value of landing exactly on Go. There is one minor difference between Here & Now and Classic. Classic now has the ability to play over bluetooth, but obviously only if all friends have bluetooth capable idevices, sorry 1st gen iPhone and iPod Touch. Also you can turn off shake to roll, but that's no fun.
The Good
You can now play the great gameplay of classic monopoly on your iPhone anytime anywhere. Monopoly is always fun, and despite all of the different versions the classic is still the best. It's always great to collect park place and board walk and the green ones, build up some houses, and start bankrupting opponents. The entire game flows quickly, as you're not dragged down by the physical limitations of working with all of the physical items whether it's counting out money, moving the pieces, or adding houses. The computer players move quickly so you don't have to wait too long until it's back to your turn. The game is nicely designed from the board to the pieces, and even the background rooms you play in. The animations flow well from the burst of gold dollar signs when money is exchanged to the actual movement of the pieces. It's great to see the dog walk around or the iron steam ahead. The dice roll is pretty good, and when an opponent goes to jail it's amazing.
You can turn on your own music, but even better are the three monopoly specific playlists. You can listen to smooth jazz music seemingly right out of the 20s, and it's just so pleasant to listen to. The sound effects though are basic at best with not many noises ever coming out of the game except for dings, and clomping of pieces.
The wifi and bluetooth multiplayer worked well to allow you to play locally. The games set up quick, and work well between multiple devices. As a super special feature I've yet to see, the game actually saves the wifi/bluetooth game so you and your friends can go back in where you left off. This is great because Monopoly does take quite awhile to finish, and it saves single player too.
It's really easy to interact with the game, and do all of the Monopoly transactions without all the fake money, cardboard property cards, and plastic houses. All of the purchases, trades, auctions, and mortgages are extremely easy, and streamlined. The AI actually makes intelligent moves, and provides nice difficult opponents.
The Bad
Not much to dislike with Monopoly. One thing is that it's just like the Here & Now edition, and doesn't introduce anything new. It just is a classic monopoly paint job on the game.
Another concern is that despite EA’s resources they still haven’t made any games able to play online. You would think EA could do something like ngmoco, (maybe not). Also facebook connect could be useful for monopoly, and EA employs it in Scrabble.
Though you shake to roll the dice it doesn't feel completely random like that of MotionX Poker. Also it seems that your character often lands on opponents places, but opponents skirt by yours with just the right dice roll. Another problem is that its just Monopoly that you've played many times before, and other than playing with friends there doesn't seem to be much repalyability.
