Game Review – Monopoly Streets (PS3)

The classic boardgame reaches another milestone as the board comes to life as its own city.

The Concept

Monopoly has long been the property trading game and nothing much has changed. Take down your rivals by owning coloured groups of properties and then building houses and hotels on them. When your rivals land on them, they need to pay your rent. Last one with money wins!

The Gameplay

Loyal to the boardgame, everything remains the same despite the graphical update. If you know the original, you’ll be right at home but more pleasingly, a ton of customisable rules are in place to be altered for “house rules”. It wasn’t until I bought the PS2 version that I realised Free Parking didn’t automatically collect all the taxes! Aside from that, there’s a few new modes to try out too. Speed Die adds in a third dice with the bus option which means you can stop short of your rolled number, saving you from bankruptcy sometimes. Also there is the Monopoly dice which speeds the game up as it takes you to next unbought square after your go. There’s also a mode which auctions all properties before the game starts and a few other variations. Of course, finally Monopoly also goes online which really should have been included in the last installment and gone are the slightly pointless minigames from the last installment too.

The Graphics

Much has been made of the whole 3D street thing and I have to say its been overblown. It’s great to finally see a full 3D street building up as you buy hotels, but it doesn’t really change the face of the game at all. Mr Monopoly is well done, the characters are well embellished and it does look very nice. It’s just all extra sugar though.

The Sound

Mr Monopoly does have some great one liners although after long play sessions they do repeat. The music doesn’t grate either. One thing that does annoy is on some of the themed boards and cities, the background noises are ear piercing! Also the characters (especially the Wheelbarrow) scream and giggle and shout at every movement! Argh!

RePlay Factor

Unlockable characters and boards keep the single player going for a short while (and some DLC is available already) plus local and online multiplayer will keep you more than entertained. The different game modes actually alter how you play quite a lot and so there’s plenty to do until the new version arrives in a few years!

Positives

~Online!!!

~Lots of different modes and all rules are customisable

Negatives

~Some very overexcited character animations

Conclusion

Monopoly Streets finally rivals PS2’s Monopoly Party for best port of the board game. Plenty to see and do, tons of replayability and online mode to boot – take a chance on this one!