Second time lucky! As I started to say the other day, I popped EA’s iPhone version of Monopoly in my pocket before I went on holidays.

The game is great, my experience of trying to write a review, not so great, and probably almost deserves it’s own article. Suffice to say, I tried to write the review using my iPhone but that really highlighted the absence of copy & paste as it meant I couldn’t write offline. And when I tired writing online, Safari didn’t seem entirely compatible with iPhone Matters’ blog engine, losing both changes to the article, and comments when I tried to explain what happened. As such, I decided, for sanity, to complete this article on my return to the civilized world of desktop Macs. So in reality, this is about my fifth attempt to write this piece.

Monopoly for the iPhone is based on the “Here and Now: The World Edition” edition. Therefore locations and events are modern as is the money. According to the Hasbro website the “World Edition” is “the first ever global MONOPOLY featuring the greatest cities from around the world, as voted by you”. Not sure how some of these cities made it and how Canada scored three of the greatest cities in the world.

But that’s an aside. On starting Monopoly, you can play against up to four players - using the play&pass method - both human and/or computer (AI). You can also play against players over WiFi, provided you are all on the same network. (Play&pass is okay on car trips, but I think I really should install a wireless network in my car so we can use both the iPod touch and the iPhone to play WiFi games when travelling.)

Options are available for controlling music, sound effects, tutorials, “Did you know” cards (these appear after Chance and Community Chest giving some relevant piece of trivia) and whether you want to shake the iPhone to roll the dice or not.

For each game, you can choose the difficulty level, that is, how hard the AI players try; what pieces each player uses; the table and location you want to play in (I like the seaside villa); and you can change seven house rules, such as how much money to start with. My favorite house rule is missing though (the one about not trading, buying, selling, or collecting rent while in jail).

In the course of play, the game instructs you who to pass the iPhone to, as it also does when you are using the Trading function. You can also analyze properties, seeing how many times they’ve been landed on and what their returns have been.

Playing the game it is true to the original, and, except for the absence of being able to touch and hold the various game pieces, the experience is as good as could be hoped. Everything on this iPhone version is well implemented and uses the iPhone’s touch features well. The accelerometer is only used for the rolling of the dice. The graphics are clear and sharp and the animations are used sparingly.

Battery usage was very good, with no excessive drain, although you would expect as much. Performance was also very good, with the game loading quickly and running smoothly, and not showing any lag, even after a long time playing.

In Monopoly for the iPhone I only found one bug (the utilities cards show a mortgage value of $1M not $750K). However, a few more features would be nice. For instance, option to declare a winner based on assets and liabilities when terminating a game; timed games; more house rules; pinch to zoom the board; and at the end of the game it doesn’t show you your net worth if you win. Also, the AI players aren’t that smart, even on the hardest difficulty.

Of course, being true to the original, this game is 75% luck, and 25% skill. But I guess that’s half the fun of Monopoly - trying to use your skill to overcome your opponents dumb luck.

I played four games on easy against one AI player and kicked butt effortlessly, but I also played one game on hard against three AI players and still won easily - mainly because they accepted trades that greatly favored me.

As a handheld rendition of the Monopoly board game, EA have done an very good job. If you like Monopoly, you will like it on the iPhone. MMMM