Monopoly – Ultimate Banking Edition review

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We are part of the Hasbro Toy Tribe and were sent the new Ultimate Banking Edition of Monopoly to try out. Now, everyone knows monopoly and has played it for years, it’s a standard classic board game. It’s a long game. It’s a game which we all either know and love, or hate. We had that same multifaceted relationship, it was just such a long game unless you put a time limit on it.

Well, I was intrigued to try this new version, a card reader means no more money counting, counting and recounting. Why? Well this version uses bank cards, the card reader tells you everything, it tells works everything out. Absolutely everything. All you do is swipe your card and it will tell you how much you have left, pay for your purchases, tell you how much you owe if you can’t pay your full debt for a property you land on. I guess it takes away the teaching money aspect of Monopoly to kids. But, it does make the game much faster!

Here are some ins and outs of the new Monopoly: Ultimate Banking Edition

The pieces:

As with the ‘old’ game there are properties, however now, there are only one type and you move the piece along when the rent increases.

The players pieces – the old style player pieces have gone, no more hat, boot and dog, replaced with an aeroplane, helicopter, ship and car. It’s also now a four player maximum game.

The rules of the game:

In my head these have changed a bit:

If you land on a property you either have to buy it or auction it. So the board gets filled with properties rather quickly, and your bank balance decreases accordingly! Well, with our games, I seem to have more luck landing no free parking, and the ‘community cheas’ cards, along with properties my hubby bought while I was landing on the blah cards. I did generally have a slightly better bank balance though!

Some of the ‘community chest’ cards are interesting things like increase and decrease rent on the whole side of a board, or of neighbouring properties… or even pick a player’s property and it becomes yours. It’s made nice and easy by just swiping your bank card and the relevant ‘community chest’ card.

Overall:

• The game seemed much quicker.
• It’s easy to play.
• I like it the fact it’s quick set up and you can just start playing!
• Perhaps the fact all your seem to do is scan your card with almost every go, makes it less of a game. It does feel a bit less strategic as you have to buy or auction every property you land on (or pay rent!).
• If you hit the wrong buttons and turn the card unit off, it turns it off and all your game goes with it. Gone.
• If you want to finish early or put a time limit on the game, you have to count all the money up manually.

This is a great game, and I do think it is an improvement on the original, keeping with the times and making it a faster game. We actually got a bit addicted and played it night after night, before we had to draw a line on our competitiveness spiralling out of control.

 

Lynne