Ten great business games

By Danit Lidor

updated 6:33 p.m. ET Feb. 24, 2006

Forget Monopoly. After 70-plus years, that board game has had its day.

The newest crop of business-themed board and card games caters to hard-core capitalists--the greedier the better. Some square players against each other in the pits of the stock market. Others demand strategic thinking to build vast real estate empires. Want to smuggle controlled substances during Prohibition? You can do that, too.

For those inextricably hitched to their computer screens, there are also a host of DVD-based video business games, published by the likes of Take-Two Interactive Software, Activision, Electronic Arts and Microsoft.

Within the "tycoon genre" come titles such as Airport Tycoon and Railroad Tycoon (both from Take-Two) and Rollercoaster Tycoon (from Electronic Arts). Activision offers a tycoon collection including Mall of America Tycoon, Carnival Cruise Tycoon and Shrine Circus Tycoon. All of these fantasies retail for around $20.

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