Who isn't familiar with Monopoly? Who hasn't spent many a Sunday afternoon with their family gloating over high rents, properties owned, financial hopes crushed under the fiscal hammer of much sought after streets and the random way people are slung into jail for throwing three doubles in a row? Zoo Digital have taken it upon themselves to try and translate this capitalist madness onto our second favourite handheld gaming device, hoping to capture the same insane greed and decadence of the original board game.

In doing so, the actual translation of the rules and layout is absolutely identical, with just a couple of minor tweaks for allowing shorter games. As most of you will probably know, the object of the game is to work your way around the edge of a square board, buying as much land as you possibly can, building on it, charging insane rents whilst avoiding paying tax and going to jail. The ultimate aim is to be the last person on the board with all the money and in essence create a monopoly that no one has a chance in hell of breaking.

The edge of the board is split into tiles and usually three tiles represent a particular district, each tile being a street within that district. The further round the board you go, the more upmarket the area and also the costlier. Besides the streets you also have public utilities you can buy, such as the Water Board and various train stations, plus the much feared 'Go to Jail' square. You can also land on squares that determine if you have to pick a card from the middle, which could benefit or hinder you. Some insist on you paying taxes, while others will give you cash rewards for being a model citizen.

As with the board game, the first few travails around the board is really a mad dash to buy up as many properties as you can. Once you own them you can charge rent from any player that subsequently lands in your street. What's better is that once you've bought all the streets in the same district, you can charge more rent and develop them further. This involves purchasing houses and hotels to place on each square. The first person to do this on the board is usually at a distinct advantage, as rents soar, money comes in from the other players and so more houses and areas can be bought up.

However, getting to this stage on the handheld version can be quite tedious. It's a case of rolling those dice, buying whatever you land on and then waiting for all the other players to take their turn. If you've selected to play against three other players, you have to sit patiently for five minutes while you watch the computer controlled players throw their dice, move their pieces and make their decisions on buying or auctioning the street they land on. As there's a lack of verbal interaction with the computer players, this becomes remarkably tedious.

Even when you've built up a few streets, have assorted houses and hotels and have had a few decent rents paid to you it really lacks a certain something. It doesn't help that the game automatically tells you if you've landed on an opponent's street and vice versa, straight away giving you the rents due or taking them away to pass to the opposition. Part of the fun of the board game with human players was keeping an eagle-eye on all your properties for every person's turn. If you didn't, a round might pass before you realised someone had been squatting on your property without rent payment, by which time it was too late to collect. That just isn't possible now, which may not sound like much but the feeling of satisfaction you get from the original having successfully dodged yet another rent is completely lost.

Another major drawback of the game is that there is no save facility. Yes, you heard right - no save facility. Everyone knows Monopoly is a long, long game and the handheld version is no different. Okay, it does have a short version, where players are randomly dealt a few properties right from the outset but you're still guaranteed at least an hour of play. That means if you start a game, you'd better make sure your Gameboy charged overnight and you've got plenty of uninterrupted time ahead of you, or you might as well not bother. I first discovered this playing my first game during my lunch hour and having built up my hand of properties and feeling smug I looked through the help menu to find the save option so I could continue later. To say I was appalled that there wasn't a save option is an understatement - all that wheeling and dealing for nothing! I really had to bite my lip as I switched the game off and returned to work.

So the single player game has its drawbacks but the multiplayer options are quite good fun. Again, the computer does it all for you but at least there's a bit of human interaction with the Gameboy's famous link-up. If you have a couple of kids who love playing the board game and each own a Gameboy Advance, you'd do well to bring two copies of this title on long trips with you. For a train journey of over an hour this would definitely keep them quiet and saves having to get one of those dreadful magnetic travel sets. Admittedly this is going to cost you a lot more but at least you're not going to end up with cards or magnetic pieces lost, or covering the back seat of your car.

A bit of work has been spent on the presentation of the board and pieces. The board is presented in a nice isometric view, so it's not square on but more 'diamond-on' if you know what I mean. This actually lends itself to the game very well and it helps that the pieces are nicely rendered, three-dimensional sprites that turn ninety degrees each time they turn a corner and bounce along as they move. The streets and areas are very pronounced as you pass by them, made additionally so by the little houses and hotels you can place on each as you progress through the game. The roll of the dice, while repetitive, looks good as they're cast over the board and remarkably land on the same spot each time. There are no dice that end up disappearing in the pile carpet or bouncing off the table to be swallowed whole by the family dog, no sirree. Even the landscape on which the board sits, a repeat pattern of all the pieces you can choose, lends the visuals a certain something.

I do have some reservations though. While the board and pieces look good, the actual cards themselves are very poor indeed. While they do resemble the cards in a traditional Monopoly game, no attempt has been made to jazz them up at all. There aren't any extra colours or any further detail and there's nothing to suggest they've been well handled, used or anything else that represents a much loved and played game, dragged off the shelves and dusted off for another Sunday afternoon. What's even worse is the lost potential of the computer-controlled players. There was such an opportunity here to make some amusing caricatures of people you may have played against, with all the expression and character flitting across their faces as their situation worsens or becomes more financially secure. You know, some of the things that made the board game so much fun to play. Instead, you have some pretty mediocre representations of that cartoon tycoon popping out of the 'o ' in Monopoly, with no animation and no feeling at all.

The sound also lacks the feel somehow but, thinking about it, what music would represent Monopoly? 'Money' by Pink Floyd? 'Get Rich or Die Tryin' by 50 Cent? 'Material Girl' by Madonna? If you have any of those tracks lying about I'd put them on, because they're going to be infinitely preferable to listening to the music on this title. It sounds like the worst of the Pet Shop Boys, before they finally upgraded their keyboard and will grate on your nerves in a very similar manner. There are a few bleeps and blips which represent the counter moving, the dice rolling, the cards being shuffled and so on, but it's unfortunately another case of saving the batteries by turning the volume all the way down and sticking your walkman on. Mind you, with the length of each game, the limits of the battery and the lack of save function, perhaps this should be encouraged anyway.

It's such a shame that while Zoo Digital went to such pains recreating the rules, layout and representation of the board game, they completely forgot about what really makes the board game so memorable - the players. While the gameplay is fun for those Monopoly enthusiasts who love and live by the rulebook, this certainly isn't a game for those who enjoy the game for the human interaction. The graphics capture the look of the board and pieces to a tee but the single player could have been made more interesting by better-drawn characters. There's nothing even resembling the subtle nuances of those completely financially crippled by you. Overall then, it's probably one to avoid unless you're going on a long journey with some avid Monopoly fans.

Reviewed by Dave Wynn for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).