If you are still playing Monopoly game
on a beat-up board with missing cards, well it’s time
to upgrade. Handmark has brought one of the most popular
board games to Palm devices. Now you can carry the game anywhere
you go and you are also guaranteed to have an opponent to
play against.
The lure of this game comes from the desire
to own properties and the fun of wheeling and dealing. The
Palm version offers both in very convenient ways. With maximum
of 4 players, you can mix human players with the computer
players. Each player (both human and the computer) will have
a name and a token icon with which you can identify the player
on the Monopoly board. If you have multiple human players
you can choose to either play on the same device or on different
devices via Infrared or Bluetooth. If you want to play against
the computer players, you can choose from 7 different computer
opponent “personalities”. They each have their
own style of playing. The AI on the computer players has
fairly high level. They are pretty tough to beat and 9 out
of 10 times they made trade offers to me were to their benefits.
The game board looks very similar to the
real Monopoly board. You really can’t see the street
names due to the small size window on the Palm, but you do
get a very clear message in the middle of the board that
tells you which slot you’ve landed and what your choices
are, etc.. There is a dice icon that shows the animation
of dice changing sides. If you click on the animation it
will roll the dice for you. As you go around the board, the
message window will flash which slots you’ve passed
and show the slot you stop at. The Palm is playing the role
of Banker, and keeps track of everyones properties, mortgages,
trades and auctions, etc.. The Banker will present you the
opportunities to buy, trade, mortgage, rent, auction and
raise money when your dice ends up in certain slots. While
you enjoy the convenience of having the Palm do all the tracking
and math for you, you won’t loose sight of your possessions
either. At any given moment, you can look at everything by
accessing the Summary window, where you will see what each
player has and take actions such as making an offer to other
players or raising money for future purchase, etc.
Another fun thing to do in this Monopoly
game is to change rules in order to make the game more interesting.
The Rule Options will let you add rules like Once Around
Before Buying, Infinite Buildings, Double Bonus Landing on
Go, Pay Rent when Mortgaged, etc.. Monopoly for Palm also
lets you save the games in progress, which is a very useful
feature when the games are going too long. The game takes
up 130K on your Palm OS device, and it supports color as
well as hi-res.
If you want to play via IR on multiple
games, you must purchase a copy for each device.
Playing Hints and Tips:
Ask a 12-year kid nearest you.
Palm
Pocket
PC
Ratings (scale of 1 to 5):
Graphics
Graphics look sharp, many view screens
for all sorts of stats.
Sound
Good amount of sound effects.
Fun Meter
It's a fun game, as anyone who's played
Monopoly the old-fashioned way knows. Even better, this one fits
in your pocket and you've always have someone to play with. .
. and you won't have to worry about losing the game pieces.
