Monopoly for GameBoy Advance

by Destination Software

Product Features

• Monopoly for your Game Boy Advance is a great way to enjoy the thrills of controlling the businesses of an entire town -- and maintaining it against your competition! Buy streets, put up houses and hotels, control the railroads and utilities and create a monopoly where you control the town.
• Wireless play with up to four players
• ESRB = E for Everyone

Product Details

• ASIN: B0002T7ZHA
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 5 x 1 inches ; 5 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,638 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Mr. Monopoly is your master of ceremonies as Atlantic City comes to life. For the first time on Game Boy Advance, you will see what Boardwalk really looks like and watch your tokens hop, skip, and dance around the board. From the rolling lawns of Park Place to the lowly backyards of Baltic Avenue, you'll be entertained as you try to bankrupt your opponents and stay out of jail!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good effort, but this version needed more work., December 14, 2004

By 

CMC "Diamondfist" (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Monopoly for GameBoy Advance (Video Game)

As a big Monopoly fan, I was wondering when there was going to be a version for Game Boy Advance/SP, or even the Nintendo DS. I was at first excited to hear of this release and looked forward to playing it.

Graphically, it is a huge step above the Game Boy Color version. It is similar to the PC version with the game board's slanted perspective. Although the view doesn't zoom in for a close-up look at the token and the space landed upon, the game displays the deed if it is unowned property, or text stating ownership, mortgage status and rent paid if applicable. The properties and spaces however, don't have legible words and/or property values, just scribbles, except for the four corners, and the Jail space is missing the "Just Visiting" text. The spaces are clearly identifiable though. Dice rolls are done nicely, the rolling process takes a bit too long for me, though the results are easy to see.

The tokens are rendered very nicely, and include the two tokens that were not in the Game Boy Color version: the Battleship and the Cannon; unfortunately, this version, like the GBC version still limits you to eight tokens, omitting the Horse & Rider, Wheelbarrow and Sack of Money tokens, which interestingly enough appear in the instruction booklet. Unlike the box description, the tokens don't "hop, skip and dance around the board", but they all move identically, as you would if you were moving them one space at a time on the dice roll.

The music is fairly nice, and can be toggled on or off, along with other customizable features, like starting money and properties dealt to players at start. One of the game's best features though, is the game interface. Instead of going to separate screens for trading, buying and selling houses, the selections appear right on the screen, with text on screen describing each menu button function. This results in a very streamlined interface allowing you to complete various game functions and get back in the game quickly. In game help is handy; it repeats information in the game manual and comes with a Hints and Tips section, which contains information from Monopoly.com's Strategy Wizard on winning the game.

Unfortunately, the game is not without its problems. Landing on Luxury Tax costs $100 instead of $75, landing on Income Tax always costs $200, rather than providing you with a choice of 10% or $200 (and correcting these settings in Game Options doesn't work). If a player rolls doubles to get out of jail, the game will let that player roll again, instead of the turn going to the next player. I landed on Community Chest receiving the "Advance to Go" card, on a later turn, I landed on Community Chest again and received the same card again, and no other player landed on Community Chest beforehand. When other players go bankrupt, your funds displayed for your token remain the same; no acquiring properties to unmortgage takes place and the game merely states that you win. The game manual also references as an example of a card moving you to another space, as moving you back "(for example, to Old Kent Road).", which is a space on the United Kingdom version of Monopoly. (The Help section in the game calls the space "Meditteranean Avenue").

This GBA/SP Monopoly also doesn't have a save feature as other reviewers have stated, but neither did the Game Boy Color Monopoly version, I have scoured the instruction manual and the GBC game version intensively, and it only states that you must select "Quit" and the winner is the player with the most assets, then the game can be switched off. This GBA/SP version only allows you to press start and select "Quit" and the entire game is gone, no winner, no anything.

Even with the errors and problems, the game is still nice to play, albeit slightly disappointing. If the problems mentioned were fixed and the designers had included a save game feature, (and better playtesting) this game would have been more enjoyable and a much more satisfying addition to a Monopoly fan's collection. If you're lucky enough to have the GBC version and the electronic handheld Monopoly game, it plays much better than this one.

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Terrible product, December 26, 2004

By 

sgeise "sgeise" (South West Fl United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

= Fun:1.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Monopoly for GameBoy Advance (Video Game)

This game is a very poor product. I always try to consider that GBA is a portable, and as such has limitations. But, there just isn't much "right" about this game. It has nice graphics and an easy to see/read screen. Problems, as others have said include not being able to save a game. Not being able to save a game of MONOPOLY??? You'll really appreciate that after playing for an hour at the airport and losing your game when it's time to board! The music is like fingernails on a chalk board. Mercifully, you can turn it off and keep the game sounds. Other peeves. You can only trade and build on your own turn. When you submit a trade to a computer player, nothing happens until that players turn comes up. Then they generally seem to reject it out of hand no matter how enticing you make it. Also, when a computer player starts to do something with his property, like trade, mortgage, etc....The screen that says what he is doing goes by so fast you can't read what he just did. It's also hard to manage propertys and see others status. But that probably goes with the fact that the GBA is a portable. I probably could have lived with everything else if you just could save a game. Anyway, I don't recommend this to anyone. You'll be sorry. If you REALLY REALLY have to have one because you love Monopoly, wait a few weeks and get for $5.00 used.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Best portable version of Monopoly but with one glaring flaw., December 4, 2004

By 

Raven A. Wind (Michigan) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Monopoly for GameBoy Advance (Video Game)

I've played pretty much every portable Monopoly, and this one is organized better than any of the previous attempts. The board looks good, the computer doesn't seem to cheat, the bank manages things well, and the game offers several different gameplay options.

Unfortunately, the programmers made one HORRIBLE mistake: No Saving games! No battery save, no password save, nothing. If you start a full game of Monopoly, you have to finish it (which can take a few hours) or you have to abandon it.

What's truly frustrating is that with this being Monopoly, the programmers would have to know that a game could potentially take more time than someone might have left on their GBA batteries. Sure, if you're using a GBA-SP or DS, you'll be able to get a long charge and probably finish a game before running out of power, but the original GBA may potentially RUN OUT OF POWER before you can finish a game.

Add to the this the fact that every previous version of Monopoly for the Game Boy (and other systems) had the ability to save a game in progress and come back to it later, and it makes NO SENSE that they would design this version without any sort of save ability.

And lest you think this game is a recent creation meant to be used on a newer console (GBA-SP or DS) understand that this "new" GBA version of Monopoly has been available in Japan since the LAUNCH of the original GBA three years ago! All that was done here was translating it to English from Kanji/Katakana! This took them three years? And they couldn't add a battery save?

I'm very depressed by the end result. While the game itself is the best version on Monopoly on a portable, the lack of a save feature forces me to suggest the GameBoy or GameBoy color versions over this one if you intend to play full games. Of course, if you only have a DS (like me) then you have no choice but to use this GBA version.

I would encourage Hasbro, Atari and DSI Games to FIX THIS because it's inexcusable to make an electronic version of a game known for it's hours-long play and exclude the save feature.

I'm miffed, to say the least. Buyer beware.