Monopoly For The Wii (Monopoly (Wii))

Member Name: johnny040676

Product:	Monopoly (Wii)
Date:	19/02/09 (580 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quick Gameplay, Two Very Different Versions Of The Game, Good Graphics

Disadvantages: Not Very Many Mini Games

This was a christmas present from myself to my wife, we finally got around to opening and playing it last night (15th February!!). We both enjoy the board game version of Monopoly, and we wanted some new games for the Wii, so this seemed like a great idea for a present, we both enjoyed playing it and so I decided to write a review on it.

The Game In General

I am not going to describe exactly how the game of Monopoly works, as most people reading this review will have played some version of it at some time in their life. Suffice it to say, you hve to move around the board, buy as much property as you can afford, and then collect rent from other players as they land on your properties. When you have bought a matching set of properties, you may then go on to build houses and then hotels on these properties, thus increasing the amount of rent you can charge. The game continues until only one player is left in, all the other players having gone bankrupt!! This usually causes bitterness and family arguments so be warned!!

The Classic Game

The Wii version of this great game has the classic version of the game as described above, as you would expect, this can be played on a variety of different playing boards, as well as the classic board. You also get to select your playing piece from the classic versions such as the top hat, dog or iron, but there are also newer pieces available on different game boards, such as a mobile phone, on the here and now version and a doughnut on the cake board!!!! The classic game can be played with up to four players and you can play 'hotseat' style with just one Wii remote, or each player may have their own remote. Not all players have to be human and you can select computer players to play against and also select the skill level at which they will play. You all then enter your names and play as you would the board game.


When it comes around to your turn, you shake the Wii remote, which makes a sound like two dice rattling together (my wife was very impressed by this!!), and then press the A button to release the dice, they then roll across the board and display the amount of moves you get to make. Doubles mean an extra throw, but three doubles on the row means you are off to jail!! If you land on a property that is owned by another player, the rent is automatically transfered from your account to theirs, assuming you have enough money. If you land on an un-bought space, you can choose to buy it or auction it off, if you select auction, then everyone, including yourself, gets to take it in turn to place a bid on it until it is sold the highest bidder. At the end of your turn you can pass play on to the next player, or go into accounts, this allows you to buy houses or hotels (assuming you have a matching set of properties) or offer trades with other players for property and money. If another player decides he/she wants to trade with you then the trade will be offered to you as it is proposed and it is up to you whether or not you accept.

The gameplay in this classic version of the game is brilliant and is very fast. Navigation around the various screens is simple and done with the standard Wii remote, and the graphics are actually quite good for the Wii although they do seem to be getting better on the later games. The only slight annoyance is the music which is very repetitive, although this can be turned off. If you are, like me, a fan of the board game then it is worth buying this game just for this classic version of the game alone, as you can lie back on the sofa and play it and not have to worry about counting money out or working out change etc.. You can also change the house rules as you would expect in any up to date version of a Monopoly game, so if you like your taxes to go into Free Parking or evenly distributed houses on properties then stop off here before playing and tweek your game however you like!!

The Richest Edition

With this version of the game they say forget what you know about playing classic Monopoly --- Richest Edition is something completely different and they are right. The only similarity between this version and the classic version is that you play on the same board and select one of the same pieces. We decided to try this version of the game out first and, once we had sussed out exactly what to do, we really enjoyed it. There are three different levels at which you can play this version and they are; Developer, Industrialist and Tycoon. Developer is the quickest version of this new game and is set over just six rounds and there is no trading, this version should take about 30 minutes to play. The next version Industrialist played over nine rounds lasting about 45 minutes and bringing in to play community chest, chance and the special spaces like Free Parking a bit more. The third version Tycoon is the longest one lasting about an hour and played over 12 rounds, all Community Chest and Chance spaces are fully functional in this version as are the special spaces, also there the option to trade after every three rounds.

As already mentioned this version of the game is completely different to the classic version. Each human player that is playing will need their own Wii remote and there can be up to four players, you can select some players as computer players. At the beginning of each round four dice are rolled and their values shown, you then all play a mini game to decide who gets to pick from the dice first. The mini games are quite fun, although they may become repetitive after some time, and involve winning races and betting on the stock market amongst other things, using your Wii remote, this is why you all need a remote each as you play the mini games against each other either all on the same screen or on split screens. The winner of each mini game gets to select one of the dice first, 2nd chooses 2nd and so on. You play a new mini game each round.


Next you must select one of the four dice that were rolled before you played the mini game. The number on the dice represents the number of your pieces that will be placed on the board that round. Each person selects a dice and they are randomly allocated one space for each spot on the dice they selected. When you are all placed on these spaces Mr. Monopoly sets off on his round of the board! No money is used in this version of the game as you aquire property simply by landing on it, rent is paid using properties also. When Mr. Monopoly reaches a playing piece on the board, he decides what will happen to the player whose piece it is according to the rules. If a piece has landed on an unowned property, the property becomes yours. If you land on an owned property you have to pay rent in property, the more developed the property is, the more properties it will cost you, you get to choose which properties you give up. Once you have a monopoly (a matching set of properties) you can build houses and hotels on it as in the classic game, this can be done by landing on your own set or through Community Chest or Chance cards, once you get hotels on a monopoly this monopoly is safe from being taken from you, but can still be affected by some Community Chest events. If a player lands on your monopoly they have to pay you two properties, if you have houses they pay three properties etc. etc..

If one of your pieces lands on Just Visiting you are exempt from paying rent for the rest of the round, Free Parking means you can move one of your remaining pieces to another unoccupied square to either avoid paying rent or pick up another property. If you land on Go To Jail you have to pay three properties back to the bank. Landing on Go allows you to choose any unowned property to add to your protfolio. Taxes require you to return one property as tax, or in the case of super tax you will have to give back one property for each four you own. Community Chest allows different evens depending on which version of richest edition you are playing and chance allows you to steal a property from someone richer than you or build houses on a monopoly you own.


The outcome of these variants of the game is decided at the end of the number of rounds played as outlined earlier. Each property you own has a value and this is added together and shown as your 'worth' you also get value added to this for each house and/or hotel you own, they player with the highest 'worth' at the end of the game wins.

Hints And Tips

When playing the richest edition version of the game, the most important decision you make eack round is the dice number you pick. Early in the game it is a good idea to pick high numbers, as this gives you more chance of landing on unowned properties which then become yours. Later on in the game you have to think about how many properties you already own, as taking a large dice roll when you don't have may properties, could mean you end up landing on a lot of owned properties and paying a lot of rent. If you have a lot of properties, however, it might be a good idea to take higher numbers as there is a good chance of landing on your own prperties and improving them with houses or hotels.


The mini games are set up in favour of the losing player always, therefore if you are well ahead you will encounter more obsticales etc. therefore making it harder for you to win the mini games and therefore unable to have an early choice at the dice, so it is not always a good idea to run away with the game too early on. Also there are a lot of cards which allow the poorest player to take a property, or sometimes a monopoly, off a richer player, so the game can turn around rapidly in one round if you are not careful. It seems to me that you are better off being the average player all the way through the game and then trying to win the game in the last couple of rounds.

When playing the classic game, I have a few tips I have come up with over the many years I have been playing the game. Firstly do not think that Mayfair and Park Lane are the best set on the board, as they are not! Firstly there are only two properties to aim at making it statistically harder to catch rent payers compared to three property sets. Also the houses and hotels are the dearest at £200 each making it an expensive set to develope, and one that is quite often missed. The best set on the board is the orange set followed by the purple set. These two sets on the left flank of the board are both three property sets, and developement is reasonable and attainable at £100 per house or hotel. Also you not only catch people traveling around the board but also pick people out who are sent to jail on their release, any player throwing a 6, 8 or 9 (statistically easy numbers to roll with two dice) will hit your orange set. Also I recomend buying every property you land on for the first few rounds of the board even if you have to mortgage properties you own in order to buy more, as the game of Monopoly is all about aquisition and so you will have the upper hand if you own more property than everyone else nine times out of ten. Another tip is to think any trades through carefully, do not let a property go if it will allow another player to make a set up, unless you are getting a set in return.

My Opinion

So what do I think of this game for the Wii? Actually, my wife and I are really impressed with it, as I have already mentioned the gameplay and graphics are very good, as is navigation with the Wii remotes. These points are quite important to us and they have managed to tick the boxes with them. The classic game is exactly the same as the board game but without the need to set the board up and mess about with cards and money, and working out cash amounts and getting change out of the bank to pay someone etc. etc.. We both enjoyed playing the classic version the few times we have played it. They try to keep it a bit different by having a few different themed boards to play on and these are locked initially and unlocked by getting stamps in you monopoly passport. There is a futuristic board and even a cheese board to play on if you get enough stamps. I have to admit I would rather just stick to the classic board as I know everything on it and how much rent is due on each property by its name, from the many years playing it. We have tried a couple of the themed boards and you do not know what is what as all the properties are re-named according to the theme, my wife seems to prefer the themed boards though so these will obviously appeal to some people and not to others.

In creating the richest edition of the game for the Wii, I have to say that the makers have done a really good job. I don't normally like new variations to classic games that I have played all my life and normally prefer to stick to the classic version. I have to admit that if my wife had not put the richest edition on first I probably would not have bothered with it, however having played it a few times now and got the hang of it, I actually think it is really good and a great alternative to the classic version in my opinion, and one I would recomend to anyone who likes the game and also to dislikers of the game. There is also a section where you can practice the mini games, which is a good idea to have a go at as some of them are a bit tricky!! Like I said earlier, the mini games are quite good and entertaining, however I am not sure how long they will stay this way for as there are not that many really and I would say that this is probably going to be the only negative point about the game, as once you tire of these games you will probably tire of the richest version of the game, however you still have the classic version, which I will never tire of. Overall I would definately recomend this game to anyone liking Monopoly and to those who do not like the classic game try the richest edition out as it is quite different and worth a try. It is a really easy game to just put on and play and the different versions to choose from mean you can have a quick game lasting about half an hour up to the classic game which can take as long as about four hours in my experience!

Thanks For Reading, Also On Ciao.co.uk And Ciao.com, John

Summary: Classic Game Made Easier To Play