It always ends in tears, and dad never loses (Monopoly)

Member Name: bruffyboy

Product:	Monopoly
Date:	15/06/09 (28 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fun

Disadvantages: lots of pieces

Here it is; the classic board-game that's left a million dads happy and their kids crying.

Monopoly is a board game based on building up money and assets. Basically, your aim is to buy properties, build up a property port-folio, and claim rents from other players who land on something you own.

You begin with a certain amount of money, then spend it carefully as you go round the board. The places you move correlate to the number you roll on the dice, and you can buy any property you land on, unless someone else already owns it, in which case you must pay them rent.

Properties come in sets of two or three, and when you own the whole set you can put hotels and houses on them. This costs you, but the rent you can the claim is much higher.

The aim of the game is to basically build up houses and sets and take everyone's money as they land on them until you have the monopoly (i.e. own the largest share of the market).

The game is interesting as it can be played at many levels. I suppose you can access it from around 8 years old (with adult help), but when you get to adult level it takes on a whole new meaning.

I am not exaggerating when I write that I once played 50 games over a month. It becomes so addictive, especially when you do deals with other players i.e.g 'I need that one, so I will give you this one plus £500 to get it'. As deals go on and on, you can work other people out of the game.

The fun comes when everyone has hotels and you manage to dodge them and then laugh as they land on you.

I have an old set from the 1970s, which is in great condition. The new set I have is made from painfully poor quality paper for the money, which makes it float around and quite hard to handle.

The only annoying thing is there are so many working pieces, and it takes a long time to get it all in order. Particularly, when the money gets jumbled up, it can be a real pain to put it all in order.

All in all, an excellent game. It's great to play as a family, with dad inevitably taking the role of banker, and younger ones getting a helping hand from mum. It always turns out to be everyone against dad, which is half the fun I suppose.

The original Monopoly is made up of areas of London, such as Pall Mall and Whitechurch. You ro

Summary: do it