Handmark releases Monopoly and Scrabble:
2 of the World's greatest games
One of my biggest disappointment in upgrading my palm-size Cassiopeia to the iPAQ was that I can no longer play Scrabble or Monopoly on my PDA. Now that Handmark has brought both of them back on both the Palm and PPC, happy days are here again!
Handmark brought these all-time favourite games for the PDA, first for the Palm OS, then the Pocket PC. Having played and reviewed both these games on the Palm OS, I know that if anyone can do justice to the PPC port, Handmark will do it. Neither I nor the millions of players of these two games are going to be let down.
Even before these games were out, I joined the beta test team and put in my 2 cents worth. It is amazing to see the attention to detail as bugs and fine points are tweaked to perfection.
Scrabble
There is no game that has as international a following as Scrabble. Although the Palm version works well and is pretty straightforward, the PPC version is so much better. It does not look so flat, has a great dictionary and the AI is very good. Do not choose the 'easy' option as these computer players will drive you crazy, blocking every path to form 'real' words.
I liked the dictionary and selected the lookout to automatic as it is a great way to learn new words. What an educational value! You may choose to accept words not recognized by the dictionary, such as in the above screenshot, 'IQ'.
The game is bug-free and moves at a rapid pace. There is a suggest mode that I suggest should never be used as it will ruin the game. It will be OK for practice, I guess.
My recommendation for an otherwise polished game is to show the possible score on screen as each letter is placed on the board without the need to go to the menu to check the score. Also a running total of all the players' scores at the bottom will make the game even more competitive.
The best place to play this game is on a trip with family and colleague, bypassing the computer AI. This is definitely a 5-star software. If there is only one game on your PDA, this is the one.
Monopoly
While Scrabble is everyone's favorite game, I am partial to Monopoly as it brings back many a fond memory of my childhood days. When my two brothers and I were introduced to this game, we played it throughout the long summer holidays. What happy times we had.
I had expected to see more animation on the game - the classic pop-up Monopoly man was absence from the opening screen. All the tokens had the same colorless noise, it will be nice to have boots tapping, ship whistling, dog barking... as they move. Also, I dislike having to tap the dice twice - once to get it moving and another to stop it. It would be nice to take it once, let it roll and automatically stops (like a real die).
Like the Palm cousin, the game play intuitively. The PPC board is more detailed and better laid out. The top menu bar is well laid out. I especially like the bottom summary with all the acquired properties at a glance. The computer challengers play a good game, adding to the fun of the game. It is definitely a 'must-buy' game that had me addicted, the better part of the day.
My major beef with this game is that houses and hotels are not reflected on the main board. It is only when you are passing or landed on them that they are shown on the rapid-scroll card in the center. This has taken some of the enjoyment of an otherwise smooth playing game.
In summary, I highly recommend Handmark's Monopoly as a well-crafted game that is fun to play with by yourself or with friends. I hope to find in future versions for the rest of us that do not live in USA to be able to customize British, Singaporean and other local editions or even name your streets.