Monopoly (Sega Genesis)
Posted: August 6th, 2016, 1:18 pm
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.
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.