Monopoly
System: SMS
Release Date: September 1988
Developer: Nexa Corporation
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Board Game
Here’s our first attempt at turning a famous board game into the video game realm and it’s what you’d expect, Monopoly. I’m just going to say it right now, I enjoy Monopoly, I know how to win at Monopoly more often than not, and I set forth to do it here. (Spoiler: My technique is strong.)
You begin by choosing your players up to ten. If you somehow have ten people wanting to play Monopoly, huddling around the 17” black and white in 1988 probably isn’t the best way to do it. You can set the difficulty of each computer opponent from beginner, intermediate, and expert. Then roll to decide the order of play and begin. The game follows the rules very well and even tells you if you made a good choice or not on the Income Tax square.
All the buying and selling of properties, houses, hotels, and get out of jail free cards is here. Auctions for properties you don’t want or can’t afford are there. Trading properties is here, but seems to only be a one for one trade, which rarely is something a normal player would do. Paying off debts is made fairly easy with mortgaging and offering properties for sale, but if no one is willing to buy them, it’s time to file for bankruptcy.
When you roll, you’re taken to a close up of the board where the piece moves from the spot it was on to where it will end. It elongates the game, though, and you’re more likely to turn it off after awhile, which you can do in the options. You can also remove a human player or take over a computer player. There’s even a battery backup so you can save your game if you need to stop for whatever reason.
I won a three player game without any problem. Then I tried a six player game and was able to get the only monopoly, but on Baltic and Mediterranean. One player would attempt to buy every property on its turn and I started to get annoyed by how long the game was becoming, so I stopped, but no one else would have been able to get a monopoly, so I would have won through attrition once I got hotels on my properties and forced bankruptcy on one player.
Graphics: 2.0
The graphics as the pieces move is good, the rest is not so great.
Sound: 0.5
The music loops after a few seconds and is super tinny and bad.
Gameplay: 2.5
This is a very accurate representation of Monopoly.
Difficulty: 1.5
Monopoly is a game of strategy and attrition, this is true here.
Fun Factor: 2.0
I had fun with it until the computer couldn’t get any headway on me and played the stalling game.
Overall Grade: 1.7
Monopoly earns a C-. If you like Monopoly, you’ll like this. If you don’t, you won’t.