![]() ![]() Having the computer do all of the math for you takes a lot of waiting out of the game Really? This is the best offer you can come up with? Huh. Like so many things in life, the answer is a resounding “it depends.” After a bunch of plays over the last week, both some real bright spots and stunning shortcomings have made themselves apparent. ![]() So at the end of the day, is it fun? Does it faithfully replicate the time-tested Monopoly formula? Is it worth my hard-earned scratch? There is also the option of playing with multiple humans on one device, passing the iPhone to each player as their turn comes around, but this is a bit inefficient in practice as only one person at a time can see the board, so games tend to move fairly slowly. Note that each human player requires their own purchased copy of the game, hence my dual purchase. Games can be played solo against AI opponents, against up to 3 other iPhone-equipped friends (WiFi or Bluetooth only, so sitting in the same room is pretty much a requirement), or a combination. Going to Jail is accompanied by police sirens and flashing red & blue lights. Player token movements and bankruptcy are accompanied by amusing animations (Battleship sinks, Racecar smokes out of the engine, Dog lies down and, uh, goes to sleep). ![]() You actually shake your iPhone to roll the dice (and the sound effects are PERFECT). Of course, being digital, the old faithfuls have gotten a bit of a modern makeover. $10 Beauty Contest prize? $15 Speeding Ticket? $50 Bail? You’ll feel like a high roller throwing all that cash around! All of the same properties and price values from the original game remain as well. Color-coded money, only now without the extra hassle of forcing the role of Banker onto one unlucky soul. Plastic-looking green Houses & red Hotels. All of the familiar bits are there: Thimble, Racecar, Dog (I always play as Dog) and the rest of their friends. Shake, Rattle, and RollĪt it’s core, Monopoly is, well, it’s the Monopoly you know, love, and have probably played a few hundred times over. One quick download and like a true old married couple we found ourselves skipping a weekend party with free drinks to stay home and play board games. Because I’m cheap, and had to buy two copies (more on that in a bit), I elected for the vanilla version. A quick spin around the Googles later, and lo! The gods at EA, bless their cottons, have bequeathed unto us not one, but TWO versions of Monopoly for the iPhone: MONOPOLY ($2.99) and MONOPOLY Here and Now: The World Edition ($4.99). Of course, I live to make my bride happy, but the difficulty of living in a foreign country means that finding a Monopoly board we would be able to even vaguely comprehend could be… problematic. Paul and Jamie, y’see, were playing Monopoly, and since TV is exactly like real life, it was determined that Monopoly must be played post-haste. ![]() My wife was sitting on the couch, a re-run of Mad About You playing on TV, and she turns to me and says “I want to play Monopoly.” I came home from work last Thursday afternoon, the day before Good Friday, staring down the barrel of a 4 day weekend, and knowing that I had an office party with plenty of free wheat-based drinks on deck that evening. ![]()
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