Another Monopoly advance - and then a wrecking ball

***

Platforms: Xbox 360,

PlayStation 3, Wii

Price: $39.99

Age rating: Everyone

A visual step up from the console version of Monopoly from a couple years ago, Monopoly Streets lets as many as four players (online or off) move their tokens through a busy metropolis that changes as they buy and develop lots.

Aside from the attractive visual package, this is still Monopoly: Roll dice, move spaces, buy and auction properties, pay rent, build houses and hotels. The game comes with several other boards, ranging from the standard one to themes that can be bought with in-game currency.

There are also house rules and variants, such as the Speed Die from Mega Monopoly, a short game that's over when one player is bankrupt, and an all-auction game with the goal being to collect two full color groups.

**1/2

Platform: Wii

Price: $49.99

Age rating: Everyone

FlingSmash is packaged with the new Wii Remote Plus, which has a Wii Motion Plus sensor integrated into its design. The controller is $39.99 on its own, so the game is sort of a $10 extra.

That isn't to say it's bad; the visuals are cute, and the game is pretty entertaining. It's just not particularly deep. Players use the remote to fling around a ball-shaped hero named Zip, who looks a lot like Pac-Man with a red topknot.

Zip is trying to gather several sacred pearls to rid his island home of evil invaders, and must make his way through numerous levels filled with blocks, locks, and other obstacles.

Players flick the remote in the direction they want him to go, and he's sent flying to bash through obstacles and enemies, picking up items wherever he passes over them. Some portions have the player in command of a staff that bats Zip around like a ball.