Monobsoloutely brilliant. (Monopoly)

Member Name: rawwrjem

Product:	Monopoly
Date:	10/04/09 (30 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun, brings family together, learns you how to count.

Disadvantages: Takes a long time to play.

Monopoly was amongst my favourite games but I hardly ever played it because nobody else wanted to play it because of how long it takes to play. I remember tantruming as a child when I couldn't get a 6 to start or complaining that it was unfair that I had lost before everyone else, I often ended up crying and going into a childish strop but the following week, I'd still end up begging to play it again.

The game consist of a board that has lots of different streets from London around the outside. Each street is represented by a colour, i.e. pink - Pall Mall, and has a price (The prices get more expensive as you make your way around the board so the prices of the first few streets are less than those of the last few). If you roll the dice and land on a street then you could choose to buy it if you have enough money but if a player already owns it, they can charge you rent. The rent of a street increases as you go around the board so the first few rents may cost aroun £6 where the last ones will cost about £35. If you manage to buy all of the streets in each colour then you can start to buy houses and eventually hotels for them which makes it more expensive for the other players if they land on your streets. With one house, they have to pay more then you add houses and they pay more and more. The houses cost between £50 on cheaper properties and £200 on the most dear ones. The hotels can be bought after you have four houses on each street.

There are four train stations which you can buy and two utility units although they aren't as profitable as the street sets, they are more frequent so there is a chance a player could land on every one as they go around the board rather than just one as they pass. There is also a 'Go to jail' square where you have to sit in jail until you roll a double or pay a £50.00 fine to leave.

Around the board there are 'chance' and 'community chess' squares. If you land on one of these then you get to pick a card from the pile. The cards can be a good thing or bad i.e some might entitle you to collect £200 pound from the bank and others will order you to pay money into the bank.
There are two 'tax' squares on the board where you will immediately have to pay a fine of £100-200 pounds. Towards the end of the game, you're glad to land on these rather than other peoples property! Everytime a player passes Go, they collect £200 which helps to keep players with little property in the game.


At the beginning of the game someone is allocated to the job of being the banker. They give people Passing Go money and they control what goes in and out of the bank. They are also responsible for the sale of the houses and hotels.

It is interesting to see how others play this game in different ways to the way I have learnt. We used to play with the rule that whenever anyone paid to be released from jail or paid taxes, it would be put under the free-parking square and whoever landed on it would have all of the money making the game more exciting and interesting.

Another thing we do, is if one player has a card that another player really wants i.e a street, then you can sell it to them and trade but only on your own turn which can result in one player getting more money and another having more property again making it more interesting.
There are lots of variations you can make to the game to make it more fun for everyone.


Over all I would recommend this game to others. It is one of my personal favourites and can be brilliant to help a family bond over fun time. It does take a long time to play but I find it very enjoyable.

If you like monopoly, you might know that it also comes in different versions like the star wars monopoly and the Simpsons. It also has the new electronic banking system which I can't say I like very much as it is fun to use the imaginary money.
The original game costs around £13.00 from various shops like amazon, toys r us and you can always look on ebay for a cheaper one, it is definitely worth every penny!

Summary: Overall a good game that you can customise to make more fun!