Settlers of Catan, Monopoly and More Smartphone Board Games | App Smart Reviews | The New York Times

This is Kit Eaton for the New York Times.

Many classic board games have made

a great transition into the digital world.

Monopoly, which is $1 on iOS and

$2 on Android, is a great example of how

you can take an original board game

and add some extra magic. The app has

all the classic features of the board game.

And instead of representing them in

boring 2D, you get to see the board and

all the playing pieces in 3D. And there

are even cute animations when your

playing piece moves along the squares.

You can play against an AI inside the game

or against human opponents.
You can share your

device or even connect it over Wifi.

I love the fact that you can customize

some of the playing rules and that the

app takes care of all that

difficult banking for you.

But I do find that sometimes the app

feels weirdly old fashioned, with the

board itself and even the interfaces

hearkening back to the past instead of

being more future looking.

Though of course, this doesn't take away

from the actual gameplay.

If Monopoly is too competitive for you,

and it is for me,

then family classic Game of Life is also

available as an app, which is $1 on iOS

and Android.

like Monopoly, this app includes cute

cute 3D animations, to try to

add some life - ironically -
into The Game of Life.

Its menus are a little fiddly, and the app

isn't particularly good at explaining how

to play the game. So perhaps it's best if

you already know how to play the board

game version.

Lastly, if strategy board games are more

your cup of tea, you should check out

Catan, which is $4 on both

iOS and Android.

This tabletop card game has made an

excellent transition into being an app,

mainly because of the strong

imagery on the cards, which are also

present in the digital edition and also

because the app handles some of the

complicated game rules for you.

Catan is faithful to the original game,

has excellent graphics, and is hard to

learn, but fun to play.

And that's it for me. Enjoy playing

these board games but don't forget

about playing the real things in person.

It's a very human experience.