The worlds most popular board game hits the Xbox 360's streets in EA's fun loving adaptation.

Until I fired up 'Monopoly Streets' I didn't realize there were so many ways to play the classic board game of Monopoly. Of course most of us are familiar with the “official” rules, or how “official” our parents and friends wanted the game, so seeing all these new options immediately made 'Monopoly Streets' feel fresh, something I doubted that would happen.

Ways to play
For a refresher, the official rules of Monopoly starts you with $1'500 and $200 for passing go. You buy properties and pay rent to the other players until one player is left. In a nutshell, that's it.

Following those rules several other options are opened up in 'Monopoly Streets' including 'Speed Die' – start with more money with an extra die added to speed up the gameplay. 'Short Game' each player starts with 3 properties with 3 houses only needed to be purchased to build a hotel. Next is 'Bull Market,' which starts the game with fast auctions of all the properties with the game being decided after 20 turns. Hmm, not sure why this wasn't called “short game.” 'Jackpot' follows, a mode that lets you build and trade properties without owning a whole set. The winner, first person to double their total worth. Lastly is 'Fast Deal' which allows the winner to be called once someone collects 2 colour groups.

Customize your game
For an alternative to the pre-made modes you can create your own custom game, a feature that will probably interest most players. In creating your own game to can modify most of the aspects of the game, most importantly making “Free Parking” a fluctuating money pot, much like you likely played growing up. These custom sets of rules can be saved to played a later game, so you can easily fire up Monopoly the way you like it. As you can tell by the amount of variety, this makes 'Monopoly Streets' instantaneously more fun then the game in the traditional sense, as long as don't mind firing up your gaming system.

Street walkers
'Streets' is playable online or with four human players or computer substituted A.I. The A.I. Difficulty can be set between easy, medium, or hard. The board you play on is also selectable with two options being opened initially. These modes include the “Streets” mode and the “classic board.” Streets is a 3D version of the game were you head down to “street” level with full out 3D characters along with our classic pawns (shoe, hat, wheelbarrow, etc.) The street view is cool and without a doubt more interesting then the classic board. Although at anytime you want that “classic” feel you can look at the map, which is the old classic board. You also have the ability to turn “preview a street” to get a full 3D rendering of a location. Rolling the dice (how you progress in the game) is done by a few button presses. Buying properties is done normally or from bank auctions that comprises of a auction styled mini-game. Sometimes at a lower price or higher depending everyone’s ambition and greed. You can also trade with other players or mortgage them out, or build house and hotels to get ahead in the game or save yourself from immediate bankruptcy.

How's it look?
The graphics aren't too special, but they are good enough. Really what did you expect? In the “street” mode, EA does their best by adding some life to the streets, simple yet effect animations. Beyond that the colourful visuals and avatars that walk down the street (including the ones saved on your system) help make "streets" a little lively. On the other hand, the audio slides the cale down mainly because of the overuse of “simlish” gibberish from the characters. Thankfully the host has a normal speaking voice and does a good job giving advice and sounding wise like you would expect. Beyond this the music is OK, although in long games you might want to throw in some of your own music.

More Extra's Please
Aside from a few unlockable board types like a 'cheese board' 'jungle board' and 'ice board' that are basically new skins. Monopoly Streets does little to innovate the product. It was disappointing that they didn't include any alternative editions of the game like the 'world edition' or the 'Canadian edition.' a simple changing of the names wouldn't been too hard on the development team.

This one is pretty easy. If you want a console edition of Monolopy, then 'Monopoly Streets' will likely meet your expectations. Although it's not the perfect Monolopy game, it gets the job done.

Monopoly will always be fun Street view adds some much needed life Better then expected Ability to create custom games "Simlish” gets annoying quick Background audio is forgettable Needed more unlockables Quote: "This one is pretty easy. If you want a console edition of Monolopy, then 'Monopoly Streets' will likely meet your expectations. Although it's not the perfect Monolopy game, it gets the job done." Reviewed by Downtown Jimmy | 11.25.10