We've all seen the PC ports of Monopoly, if just on commercials. The game is almost identical to the board game, but adds some cute little animations and eliminates the need for a committee to keep tabs on the banker. That fact alone can get rid of a lot of Monopoly controversy. The game.com version is a lot like PC versions we've seen. There are cute little animations, and all the tedious work of banking and keeping track of properties is taken care of by the computer. All you have to do is hotseat it, but there's an advantage to hotseat play on a portable system: The game.com can be passed around, so all us players have to do is sit back and watch our butts get bigger. Ain't technology grand?

Passing the game.com around is actually a lot of fun. It you a multiplayer mode, with up to four players allowed, that doesn't require the constant attention of everybody involved. It also doesn't require that everybody playing owns a game.com and a copy of the cart, which is a bonus. With a game that can last as long as Monopoly, it would get really tedious to watch each and every person go through their turn.

All the basics of Monopoly are included. You can play any of the official rule variations by turning on and off rules on an options screen. You can also set up property trades and auction off property, although the menu interfaces for these are not so good. It takes awhile to figure out exactly what's going on, but once you get the hang of it you'll be auctioning and trading your way to Trump status.

Overall, Monopoly is one of the most fun games I've played on the game.com. It doesn't get as repetitious as some of the arcade ports, and it incorporates multiplayer that is really useable. The hotseat action is great, especially in situations where a Monopoly board isn't practical. And anyone who's played the board game version of Monopoly knows how incredibly addictive the game can be.