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Monopoly (NES) artwork

Monopoly (NES) review


"The NES game of Monopoly is based on Parker Brother's classic real estate trading board game of the same name. Released in 1991 by, of course, Parker Brothers, Monopoly successfully makes its transfer into the video gaming world. With other Monopoly video game ventures ahead of them, Parker Brother starts out with a bang in this video game port of their highly successful board game. "

The NES game of Monopoly is based on Parker Brother's classic real estate trading board game of the same name. Released in 1991 by, of course, Parker Brothers, Monopoly successfully makes its transfer into the video gaming world. With other Monopoly video game ventures ahead of them, Parker Brother starts out with a bang in this video game port of their highly successful board game.

The intent of each player in this game is to end with more money and assets than all of the other players. This goal is mostly accomplished by having each player take turns rolling the dice to move around the board, buy properties, and charge other players rent for landing on their privately-owned properties. Other factors that can help or harm a player are also involved. The biggest of these contributing factors is the spaces you land on, where you may have to pay the bank for a tax or you may have to pick a card from one of two card piles, Community Chest or Chance, asking you to give money, receive money, or move to a certain space on the board.

Before the game begins, you have a few options offered to you, the first of which is player options. You can choose to play with anywhere from two to eight players. Not all of these have to be real live human players, though. You can choose to have computer-controlled players join you in the game, meaning that you can play this game without any other people, if you so desire. Once the players are selected and each human player has entered his name into the game, they each get to choose their playing piece, which can be a car, a horse, an iron, or any of a few other choices.

After the players and their playing pieces are selected, you will next be given the option to time your game. If you decide not to time your game, the game will keep going until either a player wins or the players decide to end the game when they can't continue anymore. If you do decide to time the game, you can choose from various game times, ranging from 15 minutes to several hours, and the game will continue until either a player wins or until the time runs out and the player with the most money and assets is declared the winner.

Whether or not you choose to time your game, you have the option of proceeding to the game editor. If you choose to skip the editor, the game will start using its default settings, which puts each player on the ''Go'' space in the bottom-left corner of the game board, gives each player $1500, and starts each of them with no properties. If you do decide to use the game editor, you can manually decide which space each player starts on, how much money they start with, and what properties and buildings they will have. There are also pre-programmed game editor settings that you can use for a quick change of player information if you don't feel like changing the settings on each and every player in the game. Once you are finished with the timer options, a player is chosen, at random, to go first and the game begins.

There's really not much to do control-wise in the game. You roll the dice and the game takes care of the rest from there, besides giving you the option of buying or auctioning a bank-owned property you land on. There is a menu that you can access at any point in the game. In this menu, you can do many things, such as mortgage property, trade property with another player, view your money and assets, and buy houses for your properties. Other than this, there's really not a whole lot of things that you have to do in this game. Because there is so little that you have to do, there's really not much to evaluate when considering the quality of the control. The control is excellent and is very quick and responsive.

The graphics in the game aren't as good as I had hoped. The game board looks like the actual Monopoly board, but it is a little too plain. Little detail is evident in most parts of the game, besides the playing pieces, which are extremely well detailed. Animations are placed in many parts of the game to try to liven it up, like when you build a house on a property or when you auction off a property. Many of these animations are very good, but some are also very choppy and fake-looking.

There is hardly any music throughout the whole game. Although, you do hear a half-decent song when you turn the game on, when a player goes bankrupt, and when the game ends. You also hear a short three-second song when a player enters their options menu. Aside from that, very little music is heard throughout the whole game. Some of the songs really aren't half-bad, though.

There aren't many sound effects in the game, either; but there aren't many things to do in the game, so it does make sense that there would be a little amount of sounds. The sound effects are pretty well done, and at least they aren't the Atari-like sounds I hear in many of the NES games I play. Some of the very few effects include the sound of the rolling dice, the sound of a playing piece moving around the board, and the little beeps you hear when selecting a menu option. As I said, there really isn't a whole lot of sound effects heard in the game; but what do you expect from a game where you do nothing more than roll a dice?

The challenge in Monopoly all depends on who you are playing against and what the dice brings you. If you are playing against people who have no idea what the heck they're doing, they will probably make stupid decisions that will only make the game easier for you. If you are playing against a bunch of smart people or computer players, they will probably make good decisions that will make the game more difficult for you. The challenge offered in the game does depend on the players playing it and it also depends on the roll of the dice. It is mostly just a game of chance than anything else.

The NES version of Monopoly is fun, but I prefer the actual game. Although, the video game can still be a load of fun, too. The times you will most often find yourself playing this game is when you want to play a game of Monopoly but don't have anyone to play it with. This is when the NES version really comes in handy, because you can play against the computer instead of having to waste all of your time trying to find some human players that want to join you.

This game does have some glitches in its graphic and sound design, but the overall game can be very enjoyable. It would be great for people who love to play Monopoly, but can never find anyone to enjoy the experience with (like me). I can't guarantee that you will enjoy this game; but if you found the actual board game entertaining, you may find this game to be fun to have around.

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Gameplay (8/10): The game has a lot of options, but there's really not a whole lot to do.
Control (9/10): The buttons are very quick and responsive.
Graphics (5/10): Choppy animation and a lack of detail are evident in some parts of the game.
Music (6/10): There isn't much music in the game, but the songs there aren't half-bad.
Sound (6/10): Not many sound effects, either; but they are pretty good.
Challenge (N/A): Being mostly based on chance, the challenge can differ every time you play.
Replay (6/10): It's not as much fun as the actual game, but it is still enjoyable.

Overall (7/10): This is a pretty good attempt to make a video game port of a classic board game.



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