Monopoly Millionaire Board Game Review and Giveaway!
Our family hasn’t played Monopoly for years. But this weekend we played the new Monopoly Millionaire board game by Hasbro and had a great time. The funny thing is that at the end of the first game, the kids wanted to keep playing and Caleb begged to play it again.
I say it’s funny because the biggest complaint that we’ve heard about Monopoly over the years as how long it takes to play. We typically hear that people never play Monopoly through to the end of the game. After playing for so long, players just get tired of it and declare a winner.
We’re sure that’s why Hasbro came out with this new Monopoly Millionaire board game – and why it loudly proclaims on the front of the box “First to a MILLION Wins!”
What’s so different about Monopoly Millionaire?
While every iteration of Monopoly has some differences, most of the changes are just to the properties on the board. Every themed Monopoly version simply picks cool names for the property spaces and uses different shaped playing pieces. But the formula is always the same – roll the dice, move your piece, and either buy a property or pay rent. It’s this simple and familiar game play that keep families all over the world buying new Monopoly games. They don’t need to learn something new. It’s in their comfort zone. Just pick a theme you think is cool.
With that in mind, many will be happy to hear that in this regard Monopoly Millionaire is the same. It has the same roll and move game play mechanic that it’s had forever. And you still buy properties, add houses and hotels, and pay rents.
However, there are a number of changes that we think are great.
- The biggest change to the game is what we’ve already mentioned – the game doesn’t last forever. You don’t play until you bankrupt everybody. You don’t smear out all the players until only one is left at the table who cares about the game. In Monopoly Millionaire there most likely won’t be any player elimination at all. Sure it’s possible. But most likely someone will hit the million dollar mark long before players get bored.
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Even the playing pieces show you’re moving up in the world. The other big change is that you can upgrade your playing piece during the game. When players pass GO, they can choose to upgrade their playing piece (for a cost of course). Why does this matter? Because it increases the stakes as you play. It’s a way for the game to progress as you play. For example, with higher-level playing pieces you collect more money each time you pass GO and you also receive or pay more money when you get Chance cards or Millionaire Lifestyle cards.
- And the last new element that we’ll mention is the addition of Fortune cards. These are little cards that are placed on all properties to start the game. When players land on un-purchased properties, they first get the Fortune card on that space. Some are played immediately and some are kept for later. They add cool twists to the game like forcing a property swap with another player, refusing to pay when someone asks for money, building a house for free, or even stealing a property from another player. It’s like adding cool super powers along the way.
Actually, we better mention another cool item in the new Monopoly Millionaire – better money! Instead of paper money that gets torn and wrinkled, Monopoly Millionaire includes thick, durable, card-stock money. It’s much better for all the money handling and quick exchanges since money is always flowing.
What do we think of Monopoly Millionaire?
Overall, we like the new Monopoly Millionaire board game. Like we mentioned at the start, we haven’t played the basic Monopoly game in who knows how long. For a game with simple mechanics of roll and move, it shouldn’t last as long as it does. We’d also never finish a game because people knocked out don’t leave the table feeling all happy inside.
Knowing the issue of game length, we made sure to note how long our games of Monopoly Millionaire lasted. On average, a game lasts about an hour. And the funny thing now is that it feels too short. Or maybe we should say instead that it’s more of an abrupt ending. Just when you start to get rolling, the game ends. Sure no one’s eliminated, but we’re also just barely adding houses and poof – someone wins. Other players felt short-changed when they didn’t even get a single chance to collect higher rents from someone landing on their properties.
Take Paradise Island for instance (the typical Boardwalk space). With 2 houses on it, rent is $250K. By the time you’re adding houses to that property you’ve already got a good cash stash going. As soon as someone lands on it, boom – you get $250K and win the game.
How funny is it to get requests for a game of Monopoly to go longer than the rules say? Sounds pretty strange. But it’s true. Now we get calls for the game to play to $1.5 million instead. The only downside to being able to do that is that the game doesn’t come with enough money to go that high in a 3 or 4 player game.
But even with that small (and surprising) complaint, the new elements Monopoly Millionaire adds make this board game a keeper. In fact, it will be the only copy of Monopoly on our board game shelves.
Thanks Hasbro for the review copy of Monopoly Millionaire. It’s now got a spot on our game shelf with all the other fun family board games.
And now you, dear readers, can win a copy of Monopoly Millionaire from Hasbro as well!
Enter to win a copy of Monopoly Millionaire for your family!
- Get an initial entry into the Monopoly Millionaire giveaway contest by commenting at the bottom of this post.
- Between now and September 23, 2012 you can also get additional entries in the contest by doing these other things as well:
- Comment on other posts on The Board Game Family website
- Share any of The Board Game Family posts through the Share link at the bottom of the posts
- Like The Board Game Family on Facebook
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The more you do, the better chances you have to win!
Last day for entries into the contest is September 23, 2012.
UPDATE Sep 24 – Our winner has been announced!
And we have cool ways to choose winners… (take a look at the contest selection process when Brooke was a little younger).
NOTE: We know a ton of our readers are in international locations. However, this Monopoly Millionaire giveaway contest is limited to US participants. But even with that – all our international friends/readers are still encouraged to comment, tweet, and share our reviews and articles of family game time. And it won’t hurt to get practicing because next month we’ll have a new giveaway contest for everyone to enter.
“Another factor in helping the game move along quicker is that players are forced to buy or auction a property whenever they land on an unclaimed property. This way it doesn’t take long before all the properties are purchased. And with the auction element, players don’t have to land on a property to buy it. If the person that lands on it doesn’t want to buy it (or can’t afford it), then it goes to the highest bidder. We really like this because it means everyone has a chance to be collecting rent early in the game.”
But but but… that’s a ‘normal’ Monopoly rule. Sure, few people remember to play it, but still…
Line O’Stevens and Brian W. – You’re right. That is a ‘normal’ Monopoly rule and goes to show how long it’s really been since we played it.
Monopoly too short? Too good to be true? Also – isn’t the auction mechanic already part of the original rules? At least, that’s how my family has always played.
We love monopoly and look forward to trying this new game.! The Board Game Family is my favorite place to find new games! Our new favorite that we just purchased is BANG. Love it. Sequence is a current favorite as well. Thank you and keep up the good reviews!
Jodie – We’re happy to hear that you’re enjoying some of our recommended games. BANG and Sequence are some of our most played games.
Looks like an interesting variation – would love to try it out, as my wife is a big fan of Monopoly.
This game looks great! We would love to play it! Thank you for doing this! We love you guys!
This looks like a great modification to Monopoly. Our family would love to play!
It is always a goal to be in the millionaires club in Monopoly. We would love it.
this looks cool! i could always use another board game!
This sounds like some really great changes.
It is funny you mention the auction as a new rule I thought this was part of the original rules I have been playing this way for over 20 years (it is just the way it was explained to me as a kid).
The whole things about beating everyone else is so old fashion and does not fit the new business world.
This looks like a fun version of monopoly my family would enjoy very much!
I enjoy your game reviews, you guys are great. I hope to win this game as it looks like a great remake of one of my childhood games. thanks
Another great review! We will pick this one up . . . Unless we win one 😉
Keep those fingers crossed Cameron!
I might just be willing to play this Monopoly game! I always feel bad because it’s the one game I refuse to play with my kids, but this version might just persuade me!
Heather – We’d suggest you give it a try.
I’ve just started introducing board games to my coworkers. One standby that we’ve enjoyed playing is Star Wars Monopoly. This would be a great addition to the games I now keep at work.
Jon – One of the games I took to work for Friday lunch breaks that has been a huge hit is Wits & Wagers. I’d highly suggest the new Wits & Wagers Party for play with co-workers too.
My oldest daughter loves Monopoly and has already asked for this for Christmas.
I like you on facebook.
looks like a fun game!
Interesting! Whenever there is a new monopoly the first thing I look at is what the player pawns are and those are pretty neat.
Valuable info. Lucky me I found your site by accident, I bookmarked it. .
We’re happy to hear you found our site and that it’s helpful to you.
Monopoly is usually such a bore to me, but it really looks like this new version could be a lot of fun! Thanks for reviewing it!
My kids love dinopoly and disney monopoly. I use it to reinforce math concepts in our homeschool program. I think this version would be great fun!
I love that it doesn’t last forever! I don’t like to play the old Monopoly with my son for that reason.
This game looks like so much fun. I love the old version it’s just hard to find people to play with me all the way to the end.
My wife, son and I played a game this past weekend and immediately ran into an issue. It was my turn and I landed on the last green property. I purchased it and picked up the fortune card. The card said “move to next open space and purchase or auction it”.
This is where the problem began.
my son (whose turn was next), already owned one of the blue properties AND held a “swap property” card collected earlier. I already held a “steal an opponent’s property” fortune card.
I went to the blue unowned property and bought it. My son immediately played his swap property card and took the blue for a set. I said no, that it was my turn, and I’m stealing his blue property for a complete set. He said no, that he played his card first, therefore he gets the set. I said and I get first choice. We all read the rules…the rules say you can play any card at anytime in the game, so my wife ruled that my son played his card first, therefore he gets the property, and I can’t steal because that breaks up the set, which is not allowed. I disagreed because I said I was going to buy the property when he played his card. I said that it would be silly for me to play my steal card when I landed on the property -before deciding to buy or auction it- as that would be unfair to do. We hit an impasse as the rules simply say that you can do anything at anytime. Any suggestions?
Steve – Can’t say we’ve got a solution for you. We’ve heard plenty of Monopoly horror stories where games end in hurt feelings all around. Best suggestion – put Monopoly in the closet and try some Cooperative board games like Pandemic.
I love monopoly my favourite game I give it 10/10 because everyone in my school family love it