Monopoly

How can you tell a classic boardgame when you see one? Simple – assemble a group of people (preferably four or more) to play the thing and observe. Watch their faces for signs of intense concentration, palpitations and nervous laughter. Keep an eye out for outbursts of pure anger and hatred. Yep, the best boardgames bring out the worst in us.

Of course, there are always people who play the game in the right spirit, who laugh when they lose and bend the rules to help other players. And don't the rest of us feel like ramming our little metal boot down their throats for it?

Monopoly is perhaps the biggest instigator of such behaviour and so, in our opinion, is the finest boardgame ever created. We've already seen several mobile game iterations over the past few years, most recently with EA's Monopoly Here & Now, and they've all been very warmly received. This version of Monopoly is actually very similar to this last game, coming as it does from the same developer and publisher.

In fact, the only real difference is that the place names and playing pieces have reverted to their original forms. Goodbye noisy airports, welcome back beautiful Marylebone Station. We've missed you.

Pretty much all our comments levelled at Here & Now apply here. It's another loving port of an excellent game, offering Monopoly in its purest form – there are no pointless mini-games tacked on, no superfluous modifiers. It's just plain old Monopoly with three difficulty levels and a few tweakable house rules.

These house rules are thoughtfully implemented and really don't detract from the action. You can alter things like the initial cash allowance or the structure of any auctions that crop up. Our favourite variable was a simple one – receiving double the usual Go salary if you actually land on the Go square.

The controls are equally elegant and thoroughly intuitive. We appreciated the ability to hit '5' to speed the game's animations up – especially welcome when you're playing three AI opponents, which can be pretty time consuming.

Speaking of the AI, it really does play a mean game of Monopoly, especially on Hard. Its success is not in being superhumanly good at the game, but rather that it makes you feel like you're playing a real person. It makes logical decisions, turns down derisory trade offers and slips up in a thoroughly convincing manner.

Of course, the option is there for four human players to take part, and nothing beats a bit of pass-the-handset competition.

The action itself is viewed from an attractive isometric angle, with a top-down view of the board bordering the screen in between turns. All of the information screens are extremely well thought out, with trades particularly well handled – the screen splits in half to show all of the property you own on one side and your opponents on the other. It's a simple case of selecting which properties you want to swap, along with any currency involved, and confirming to make the offer.

One issue we did find playing on our Nokia N73 was that the game started stuttering and slowing down as the rounds progressed. We assume it was struggling a little to store and handle all of the transactions that had taken place. Nevertheless, it was a little disappointing to see on what is still a reasonably capable phone.

Other than this minor technical issue it's hard to fault Monopoly. Some may complain that it's just more of the same, and certainly if you have Monopoly Here & Now it would be pointless buying this. They are essentially the same game. But if you are yet to experience a mobile Monopoly game we would wholeheartedly recommend that you start here. Because you just can't beat the classics.