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Well if you thought Monopoly was just a board game you are wrong. Monopoly has traditionally been associated with a board game, but that all changed once Monopoly came out for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Now 15 or so years later Monopoly tries to change the board game feel, and I am certainly glad they did.
In Monopoly Tycoon you are a business tycoon trying to get a monopoly of all the business in the city. You must create businesses, attract the most customers and generate the cash you need (to make more and more businesses). Try to control all avenues from Baltic to Boardwalk, to really be the top player.
One of the things I thought was pretty funny in this game is that Baltic Avenue most of the time is a better piece of property to have instead of Boardwalk. Why is this, well the answer lies in most of the gameplay. It doesn’t matter most of the time, if the property is more rich than another it matters though how much businesses you have on your block though. It can be a low priced place, but usually the lower priced blocks generate more revenue then the fancier higher priced blocks.
In Monopoly Tycoon, you can compete with up to 5 different tycoons determined to bankrupt you. They will try hard, often building in your blocks. You can try to stop this, buy buying the whole block, but later on, if there is any more room on the spot, they will try to build there. So if you buy a block it is recommend that you build enough so no one else can build there. If you have to, build so parks, they generate nothing, but your block’s prestige does go up a bit, and this is a good thing. Trying to make a monopoly to last from the 1930’s to present day can be hard at times, but if you try you will prevail. At auctions you can try to outbid other tycoons to lease a block of land for 25 years; 5 years is 1 turn. Also you could play against 5 different people on the Internet via LAN or modem. If you want the challenge.
If you go bankrupt don’t worry. You have 24 hours from midnight of the day you go into the red to get out of it and back into the green. But if you fail game over, try again. Also you need to build businesses according to the needs of citizens. If they need bread build a bakery, if they need food build a grocery, and well you get the idea. Morning business hours are 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Evening hours last from 6:00 p.m. till the go home. They could go party all night at one of you nightclubs or go shop at a shopping center till they drop. The choice is up to you.
During a certain time each day you get a chance card, be careful though it could be both good and bad. Try to lease utilities and railroads. If you have the utilities you won’t have to pay those utilities for your business. And people need railroad to get around sometimes. Those generate about 200 a day and utilities vary from day to day so you never know how much you will get, it is usually around 200 though.
Monopoly Tycoon’s graphics and sound are what make this game really shine. The 3d graphics make this game’s environment feel a little more real, although they could be better. The music in Tycoon does get repetitive at times, but I didn’t really mind it because I liked the music.
Monopoly Tycoon is developed by Infrogrames, and it will cost around 19.99 depending on location. This first competitive SIM is a must for any fan of the Monopoly game. Also this game has over 10 tutorials so you should have no trouble finding out how to play it.
-- Sean Hannay, PGNx Media
---- Sep 2, 2003
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