A very thoughtless effort.
You knew it was coming. Another digitalized version of Monopoly released (because every system has to have one!). The Game Boy Advance has enough cash-in type games to fill up the Grand Canyon, and one of the games in the aforementioned line-up of laziness is, yes, Monopoly. I'm sure you're familiar with the original board game (which can be purchased for $10 less than this, by the way), in which you attempt to become the richest player in the game by buying, selling, renting and trading your way to sweet victory. Monopoly for the GBA attempts to recreate the excitement of sending people into the poor house without the need of setting up a board, but it, for the most part, doesn't succeed.
There isn't anything new or innovative about the gameplay in this particular Monopoly offering. The customizable features in this game are quite limited; you can only set basic options such as time limited games and Free Parking bonuses. Let me take you back in time. Okay, not really, but let's look at the original Game Boy version of Monopoly that was released over 14 years ago. It had a lot of extra features like pre-set financial situations and way more options. Why doesn't this version have any of said features? Nobody, save God, knows. The lack of features are just one of this game's many problems. Computerized players take FAR too long to take turns and make transactions, wasting both my time and GBA battery life. Instead of waiting for an eternity for my virtual companions to take their turns, I could have been doing something more interesting with my time, like reading books and watching grass grow. At least controlling the game is simple (as if it's possible to make a board game based video game with difficult controls), as you only need to navigate through menus to select items and make transactions.
The game is set up in a 3D view (think of Super Mario RPG and Sonic 3D Blast, if you will). The game board itself is ridiculously blurry, and text is somewhat hard to read. You can only view very small sections of the board at a time, making it somewhat difficult to predict what space you might land on unless you've taken it upon yourself to memorize the entire Monopoly game board (very good use of brain cells if you intend to play GBA Monopoly). This, combined with the GBA's terrible screen, can make your Monopoly adventure turn sour. I don't ask for much, but I do ask with all due respect to be able to play a game without having to squint my eyes, thank you very much.
I didn't expect GBA Monopoly to be an amazing musical experience, and my ESP type abilities did not fail me. To my knowledge, there are only two musical tracks that are played throughout. One is played at the title screen, and one is played throughout the rest of the game. Both tracks are obnoxious big business-style jingles. Neither of them are memorable, nor do they contribute to the gameplay in any way. The sound effects aren't too great either. With the generic "rolling of the dice" and "moving from space to space" noises that the world has come to expect from every virtual board game, and the elevator music, no one should expect GBA Monopoly to be a treat for the human ear.
I'm afraid my favorite board game is turning into Hasbro's little cashcow. After playing this version of Monopoly for three hours, I can't think of any reason to play it again. I don't recommend that you buy this game, especially since you can buy the original board game for around half of this game's price (I can't get over that). I suppose you might see something in this if you're a hardcore Monopoly fan, but if you're not, I suggest you skip this one and put it on the "Crappy Cash-In Games" list. If you want to play Monopoly without the board, check out the 1995 version for the PC. If you want Monopoly on the go, look out for the 1991 version for the original Game Boy.