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Monopoly (Sega Genesis)

Posted: August 6th, 2016, 1:18 pm
by Robotrek
This is a pretty damned good representation of the board game! For the 0.0003% of you who have NEVER played Monopoly, the goal is to bankrupt all of your opponents and come out on top. Along the way, you'll be beaten to death by rent, screwed over by taxes, have all of your investments TANK, be forced to mortgage your properties multiple times, and randomly have to attend stupid events in the form of chance and community chest cards. JUST LIKE REAL LIFE! The board game is iconic and classic, but you have to have at LEAST and hour or 2 handy in order to play this game. Eventually some kind soul realized this was too much and released Monopoly Junior which is far more streamlined to play, and much shorter. So, how the heck could this translate well to video games? You'd be AMAZED. The game gives you TONS of customization. You can assign properties at the beginning, reduce or increase the amount of money each player has, set a timer and have the game end with whoever has the most money coming out the winner, or even have preset games with different rules. Now, if you're going to play it with another person, I question that choice. The board game is probably the better way to go. However, if you are sitting down with a buddy and want CPU players, this isn't a bad option. First of all, the presentation is great, the title music gets you in the mood for some Monopoly action. The board looks beautiful, and the game just invites you in. The satisfaction of hearing the railroad sound when you roll, indicating you landed on a railroad, that's just GREAT. Too bad the sound of the Electric company will make your ears bleed! Also, each CPU player is individually named, and they all have different skills. You even get cool voice synthesis for when you get out of jail, complete with a funny accent ("Don't ja be commin back hare now"). So yes, the presentation is fantastic. The AI is actually pretty smart. Don't think you can fool them with unfair trades! They're insanely smart about investments. And don't even THINK about trading with a boardwalk in your inventory, they'll keep demanding that property for all it's worth.

At first, I noticed that to get to a property, you have to sit through a very slow and boring scrolling process, but thankfully you can speed this up in a menu. Rolling is easy, just hold down the roll button and release it when you're ready to roll. The same rules as the game go. The OFFICIAL rules. This means no free parking lottery space (which is stupid anyway, and makes games drag on), properties are auctioned, and 3 doubles send you to jail. This really is just the board game with a wacky fun presentation. And that's fine, but you have to like Monopoly to like the game. Or perhaps, if you want to like monopoly but want 30 minute to one hour games. That too. But otherwise, this is JUST monopoly, with a few bells and whistles. The NES version is very similar, but the animations drag on too long in that version. But either is really fine.

Due to the fantastic presentation, and faithfulness to the board game, I give Monopoly a solid B.

Strategies:

Go for the railroads, collecting all 4 will give you a huge payout, as they pay out on every side of the board.

Don't just go for boardwalk. It's tempting, but in practice, you'll find that people rarely land on it without getting the advance to boardwalk card in the chance deck.

Try to stay in jail if the board is cluttered. It will help you avoid high collecting spaces for a bit, and allow opponents to inch closer to your spaces, but make sure you're out of jail when they land on them.

Try and have at least one property on each color. This way nobody else can build there, and once they need it, you can jack up the price and make a decent wad of cash. Just beware, they might turn around and screw you next time around the board.

Re: Monopoly (Sega Genesis)

Posted: August 6th, 2016, 3:38 pm
by scotland
That was really fun to read. Thanks. Makes me want to play.

The Master System version is fun too, and has good box art for the SMS. I have a weak spot for board games on these earlier systems...RISk, etc. I tend to like them.

Re: Monopoly (Sega Genesis)

Posted: August 6th, 2016, 4:35 pm
by Robotrek
Might have to give the Genesis Risk game a review as well. It's also well made, so long as you don't play the arcade mode. There's a big back catalog of interesting board game video games I've got that I can review, as well as a bunch of plug n' plays I've yet to get around to. Might as well get on the ball with those!

Re: Monopoly (Sega Genesis)

Posted: August 7th, 2016, 10:21 pm
by Herschie
I love Monopoly. Usually play the NES version, it's nice and streamlined. And I disagree with the railroads, although they do make great trade bait. Seldom are you ever going to bankrupt anyone with a railroad. The best you're going to do is annoy them as they have to mortgage a property or sell a house.

Light purples and orangies. That's what I like. Fairly cheap to improve, and you get some decent payouts if someone lands there with 3 houses or more. Typically I find that even if someone does get a monopoly with the royal blues or greens, it's never the end of the world because they keep landing on my spots, and thus never have money to build houses and hotels. Not to mention that they don't get landed on a whole lot.

Statistically, Illinois Avenue is the most landed-on spot for some reason.

Re: Monopoly (Sega Genesis)

Posted: August 8th, 2016, 1:05 am
by Robotrek
What's weird to me is why people are always buying Park Place and Boardwalk. It's so rarely landed on. Reds are always the best properties. I can win entire games just with Red, Orange, and all of the railroads. The utilities are nice, but they rarely get landed upon. Light blue New-England properties are great as well. If you get hotels on them, it's a great spot to have. Right out of the GO space and already you lose a couple hundred. Easy way to bankrupt someone low on cash around the board. The first two properties on the board have decent payouts, but rather pathetic in comparison to anything else. It's mostly an annoyance to make someone lose their 200 after passing go. I usually go after the following: Reds, Oranges, Blues, Railroads, and Utilities. I know I bashed the utilities, but if you have BOTH, and then someone lands on them, they can be an annoyance. The bases are definitely covered with my plan. Blues to instantly rob someone of their 200 after passing go, Oranges for the decent payout on the second street on the board, Red for commonly hit spots, Utilities for the occasional payout, and Railroads for the consistent boosts. It's a great strategy.

Herschie, if there were some sort of multiplayer monopoly, you'd be the guy to play with!

Re: Monopoly (Sega Genesis)

Posted: October 28th, 2016, 9:21 am
by rockofhysteria
I'm a big fan of this game my sister and my mom and I played this game a lot in the 90's I even currently have it saved to a SD card in my Sega Portable game player from AtGames

Re: Monopoly (Sega Genesis)

Posted: October 29th, 2016, 10:35 am
by twilighthotel
Both GameBoy versions (black/white and Color) are hella good fun. I assume they are based off of the NES game. I'd recommend those in a heartbeat. The only flaw with those is that it is too darn easy to exploit the game's AI.

For one, the computer opponent will never mortgage its own properties to help raise cash to buy other properties, even if buying the property will give it a color monopoly. Thus once the CPU is low on cash, it is easy to win auctions and get expensive properties for under $100, just as long as you have more cash than them. Have gotten Boardwalk for $32 that way before. :roll:

Another flaw is if you and the CPU each own one property in a color group (say the Reds) and you buy the third one, a short time later you can "trade" them one of the properties for an inflated cash price (sometimes up to double its actual value) even though it doesn't give them a monopoly. Useful if you need fast cash for houses and hotels.

Re: Monopoly (Sega Genesis)

Posted: October 31st, 2016, 3:21 pm
by matmico399
Just picked this up today at a retro game store. 5.99 with case. Will give this a whirl soon. This should be a lot of fun when you are craving Monopoly and don't have anyone who wants to play. Will give my thoughts after I play.

Re: Monopoly (Sega Genesis)

Posted: August 18th, 2017, 6:47 pm
by LuckyWDFN
I enjoyed RISK thoroughly years ago and I'm looking to try to pick up a cheap, used one.

Monopoly is fantastic. They key is to read up on the computer characters personalities. For instance, one is crazy about railroads and will do anything for 'em, one covets Boardwalk, one is a super-shrewd trader, etc etc.

If you're playing the computer, a decent strategy is to bleed your trading partner of all their cash. For instance, if you need 1 red, and they need a "more valuable" color like green or Boardwalk". Go ahead and trade for your lesser red, but also ask for an obscene amount of cash which limits their ability to buy houses right away. Use the cash you took in the trade and start building immediately. Chances are they'll go bankrupt on your reds before ever getting their own houses going.

Re: Monopoly (Sega Genesis)

Posted: December 11th, 2017, 11:36 pm
by Tron
I like the NES version the best. The Genesis and SNES versions are also quite good. Sadly the Xbox 360 and PS4 versions suck. Neither lets you play with 7 computer players and the pacing is too long and drawn out. Get to the dang property already. Pretty sad that Monopoly was done better on a Nintendo in 1991 then on a PS4 in 2016.

One thing I sometimes do is adjust everyone's starting bankroll to $3000 or $4000. It's fun paying the computer absurd prices on properties just to bankrupt them two hours later by having them land on it. On a side note I don't think you can adjust starting bankrolls on the PS4 version either. One more reason why the NES version is better.