Trinest Plays: Monopoly Gamer Edition

It is probably the board game that is on everyone’s shopping list, the recently released Gamer edition of Monopoly. I can’t wait to play as Forza Car, Lemmings, Busby, oh it is just Nintendo. Okay then Link, Kirby or? Just Mario? Okay Mario Monopoly time!

It might be more Mario Monopoly then Gamer Monopoly but the recent release of Monopoly should have everyone talking. At first, I was confused on how such a game would work, but then as I scrolled through my Twitter feed after missing out on playing the game at the previous games night, someone said something amazing. Apparently, Monopoly Gamer Edition plays like a video game, while I thought that was a bit weird I was about to learn that is the most profound and exciting way to describe a board game which feels like it gets more releases then coffees produced.

However, I was about to play the game on the weekend to make up for missing out on a launch day event of Monopoly Gamer Edition and all the potential tweets I could have digested for the sake of internet reputation. What I found was something special and I could see worth the purchase for even those not Nintendo or Gaming fans.

TRINEST RUN DOWN RULES:

• Buy Purchases and Move around like normal Monopoly
• Warp Pipes which you can go to next warp pipe
• Coins you use to purchase things or drop due to attacks
• Mario Kart like attacks and power ups
• Boss Battles each time someone passes Go

This game doesn’t just play like Mario, but another Nintendo IP a spin off to the Mario universe the Mario Kart series. The powerups and coins especially throw me back to been hit while racing around a track. The circular motion of the Monopoly board also reinforces the feeling of a race track.

The board game comes with five playable characters; Mario, Yoshi, Bowser, Donkey Kong and Peach. If you wanted to play with more people or have a wider selection Nintendo has also licenced out further characters in the Mario universe in purchasable packs. The disappointing aspect of this however are these characters come in blind bags and there isn’t a proper way to “purchase all the missing characters”.

Like in The Legend of Zelda: Clue, Monopoly Gamer Edition continues the trend of giving characters abilities in the form of a personalised power up and dice roll boost. I found Yoshi to be highly unbalancing with its star ability of capturing all the coins on the board when only playing with three people.

That aside, you used these power ups either on a roll and your ability creates an improved version of the dice roll attack or when you land on a star and your power up is enabled. For example, that horrible Yoshi power up to take all the coins currently sitting on the board.

Otherwise you play like normal monopoly, hit a few warp points instead of trains and land on the occasional space designed to leave you coinless. The power up dice is another function which gives players the classic Mario weapons to advance further with the goal of having the other player drop coins.

Bosses also happen after going around Go, presenting a new challenge. You can play the boss, with the guise of rolling a number the boss requires to have the ability to perform a task the boss card can do. For example, one of the boss cards would force a trade with two players of your choice if you rolled the required number to defeat the boss.

I say the rules are easy to understand and after one round you should be confident in the game to continue playing forever. The only real changes game play wise I found my first playthrough having was somehow turning the red shells into blue shells (meaning the player attacked would give the coins directly to the attacking player instead of the board) and I shuffled the boss deck so instead of a nice lead up to the 8th boss, the final boss was randomly the second or so boss.

In the end once the bosses are defeated the game is over, the scoring is based around the amount of points a player has. Cards would say their worth and coins are valued in lots of 5. In the end the player with the Yoshi will usually win.