Advance to Go - Playing Monopoly on Android Review

One of my favorite board games as a kids was Monopoly. I never seemed to win a lot but I liked playing. I still have it at the house, which my kids now play. When Monopoly came out for Android, I was a bit skeptical. Could they really reproduce the game in electronic format? Well  after playing it awhile on my ASUS Transformer tablet, I have to say yes!

Name: Monopoly | Developer: Electronic Arts Inc | Genre: Casual | Players: 1-4 | Version: various with device  | Size: various with device | Price: $4.99 |

Overall the Android version of the game is very true to the original board game. The game play is smooth, the interface works well, provides good directions if you need it and is easy to pick up and play. I found myself playing for long periods of time. "Just one more turn, or until I hit GO again" I would say. If you know how to play Monopoly then you know what to do and can start the game right away. If not, real quickly, you move your game piece around the board, purchase real estate, broker deals, and you win the game by having the most money and property. There are rules and in game help if you need it.

One of the nice aspects of the game, is the options. There are a ton of them; I only found them after play awhile. In the game you can:

--choose from numerous languages
--keep up with statistics and reset them if you like
--play against real players (pass and play) or computer opponents (up to 4 players max)
--choose your game piece
--vary the difficulty level
--vary the House rules
--vary the background theme of the game (you really only see this when the game starts)

Just a note on the House rules. This area is really the most important. Here you can determine if you start the game with random properites assigned to you, how much you get passing GO, your initial salary, how much you get when landing on Free Parking, and so on. Once a game starts you are stuck with the rules you pick, but if you want to shake up the game a bit, this is the area to do it.

As I said, game play is great. I love the sound of the dice rolling and hitting the board. The background music is ok, I usually ignore it. Playing on a Android tablet and the bigger screen, makes the game better. The board is bright and easy to read. I had no trouble keeping track of where I was, how much money and property I had, etc. My buddy played the game on his Droid X and said it was fine on a smaller screen. For me though, I would be concerned the screen would become too crowded.

I did find one glitch. When I tried to select property cards in my inventory to be traded or sold, many times when I would touch the screen, the wrong card was selected. After tapping a few times in different spots, I would get the right card but that was a pain. This happened in all games I played, so it was not a random thing. Could it be because I was playing on a tablet?

The AI for the game is ok. After a few games on the medium level, I pretty much figured out how to beat the game. Adding additional AI opponents helped some but I did find some common patterns to the AI. Want to know how to beat the AI?  Look away if you do not want to know... wait him out.  Earth shattering huh? When doing trades with the AI, it became almost like a broken record. It would ask for the same trade over and over again. After saying no, every time, you think it would get the hint.   I would purchase properties to block him (which is the point of the game) but then only trade when I knew I could profile from it quickly. Also if you use the auction feature, you can easily outbid the AI (assuming you have the cash) or get properties at lower than face value. My kids have not yet figured this out yet so they are still trying to win their first game!

Well, what else can I say?  Monopoly for Android from EA Mobile is a good game and if you like board games, worth the 5 bucks. You get a nice selection of options to vary the game play. So far I have only played against the computer. During our family trips later this year, I plan to try the "pass and play" games, to help pass the time in the car. And no I won't be driving when I am playing!