Monopoly review: Monopoly

We're going to assume here (and it's probably not a huge leap of faith) that you're familiar with Monopoly. Buy properties, collect rent, watch Uncle Angus steal all the money from the bank and try to stop the Family Dog from eating the Battleship while the rain pours down outside on the family holiday.

5.5

Monopoly

The Good

You can't lose the pieces. Family members can't cheat.

The Bad

Richest Minigames are poor. Richest Mode itself is so random as to be worthless. Family members can't cheat.

The Bottom Line

Wii Monopoly proves that sometimes, technology doesn't improve a game.

Wii Monopoly's not that much different, except it's harder to cheat, and the dog's slobbering on a Wiimote-shaped chunk of plastic, rather than a battleship. The basic game is presented in all of its glory, along with custom boards that you earn by playing the game's "Richest" mode.

Richest mode is odd, to say the least. No dice are rolled by players; you instead play minigames for a choice of dice faces, which determines how many "spaces" you'll land on across the whole board, randomly. Empty properties are claimed, but rent is only paid with properties, so games are a frenzy of swapped properties, broken monopolies and an even greater dose of luck. The minigames that control the only "choice" in the game, are, like far too many Wii minigames, quite poorly laid out and difficult to control, rather than being challenging fun.

Leaving aside the Richest mode, which is entirely pot luck backed up by bad minigames, there's not much basically wrong with Wii Monopoly, except for the fact that the additions don't really add much to the core game. Given you can pretty easily pick up a physical copy of the real game for around half the asking price of this, it does somewhat beg the question as to whether the virtual pieces are ultimately worth it.