Monopoly

Board games seem to work well when converted into mobile games. They don't require whizzy graphics, they tend to be turn-based, and because they're familiar, you know what you're getting when you pay a fiver to download one from your operator's games portal.

That said, most board games were initially designed for a group of people to play, which doesn't really translate to a phone. Okay, we're seeing 'pass-the-handset' multiplayer modes, where you share your phone with a group for each player to take their turn, but you can't (yet) play these games over the network in real-time.

Within that restriction, Monopoly is fab. Based on the famous property and wealth acquisition game, it's a faithful conversion, enabling you to play against up to seven mobile-controlled opponents or friends via the pass-the-handset option.

Thankfully, iFone has resisted the temptation to mess around with the rules or invent spurious new gameplay modes to 'freshen' things up. This is the Monopoly you know and love – albeit without the option to stuff a few £500 notes under your seat for the purposes of cheating. (What, that's just us? Oh.)

There are three ways to play. Standard mode keeps things going until one player manages to bankrupt all the others; Quick mode lasts until two players go bust; while Timed mode ends after a set amount of time.

Once you've selected one of the three modes, things are back to normal – you pick a piece as usual (aficionados will obviously want to know all the standard ones are included) and get into the game proper.

If you've never played it, at its heart, Monopoly is a simple game. You roll the dice and move around the board. When you land on a property you either pay rent if someone owns it or, if it's still for sale, you can decide to buy it.

There's one set of rules in this mobile game, so if you have your own variations in the real world (for example, in our house we tend to put all fines into the middle of the board, which are then trousered by the first person to land on Free Parking) you obviously won't find them here. But that's hardly surprising.

The graphics do a good job of recreating the Monopoly board, and the game moves along at a fair old lick. That said, playing with the full complement of mobile-controlled players can feel a bit much, so you may wish to keep games down to four or five players to reduce dead time.

Monopoly does exactly what it says on the box, then. It's a solid conversion of a much-loved board game, which proves ideally suited for playing on the go in bursts. You'll be board silly, not bored silly. (Sorry.)