Certainly there's a niche for a 'lite' management sim, and Monopoly Tycoon 2007 fills it admirably, but there's a problem. However, this relative lack of depth means that now, more than a year since the original Monopoly Tycoon came out, the game can't compete with more recent additions to the management game genre. It's not micro-management, where you need to be involved in every last decision, but it's interesting enough to enable you to effectively oversee your business empire. It's this kind of careful management that Monopoly Tycoon 2007 requires. You can, for example, specify the number of floors to include in your new department store, hire a manager, conduct resident surveys to determine the demand for a particular service, or adjust your prices. So the Mayfair block will accept only the best services and utilities, while Old Kent Road residents are happy with less. Your profits and property assets gauge your success, and there are a host of ways in which you can grow or reduce your finances.ДЇor a start, each of the coloured Monopoly streets have been transferred to the game, and their relative values have made the jump intact, too.

The action is turn-based in a nod to the game's heritage and you're restricted to carrying out a limited number of actions per turn. You compete with between one to three computer-controlled opponents to buy city blocks and then build and manage profitable enterprises on them. This isn't a philosophy espoused by Monopoly Tycoon 2007, the sequel to one of our favourite games of 2005, as it encourages you to make money hand-over-fist like some kind of Donald Trump figure, only with nicer hair.ДЄs opposed to a straight-up conversion of the boardgame, Monopoly Tycoon 2007 plays more like Sim City, albeit on a smaller scale. After all, the more level-headed of us realise that money isn't everything. How much money would it take for you to sit back and think to yourself, 'I've got enough'? Would it be a million or a lottery winner's seventeen? Maybe, just maybe, it would be less.

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