Monopoly Here & Now X360
Product Details
Features
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Product Description
Turn real estate into real entertainment as Monopoly, the biggest deal in classic board games comes to Xbox 360 in Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition. Celebrating over 70 years of family fun, this new rendition of the legendary property trading game is sure to delight Next Generation players as it blends familiar turn-based board game style play with the energizing, interactive action modern gamers crave.
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As with all versions of Monopoly, gameplay in Here & Now: the World Edition is driven by turn-based rolling of the dice and the player's ability to secure and maintain control of real estate investments. In the Xbox 360 version players use their controller to roll the dice, with their piece moved around the board and rents deducted from their account automatically. Once this is done they have the choice to either visit the accounts screen, where all player owned properties and available cash are listed, or to allow the next player to roll. A new twist in gameplay involves the mini-games scattered throughout the board. These occur at different points in the game--for example, at the beginning of the game to determine who will roll first. They are quick detours from the main action and are generally designed to challenge players according to their standing in the game, thus making it tougher for first place players to pull away from their competition.
A New Game With New Boards
Although the game environment of Monopoly Here and Now: The World Edition is firmly rooted in the original game through its inclusion of a classically laid out board, with all the properties and playing pieces you remember, it also offers up new directions of play through its wealth of new board options. The game contains 10 playable boards. Each is individually themed, with properties reflecting that theme. Just a few of these themes included are, jungle, arctic, future, cheese, and deco. In addition, other available boards are designed after world capitals. As players access these boards they receive stamps (tied to Xbox LIVE achievements) on a virtual passport that when filled will unlock even more boards as they circle the globe becoming international real estate tycoons.
Key Game Features:
30 Minute Games with 'Get Rich Quick'
A big part of the fun of the original Monopoly board game was the experience of going head-to-head against fellow players in games that could last for hours, depending on the roll of the dice and how much money and real estate assets were available. But not everyone wants to, or has the time to play a drawn out game like this. This is where Monopoly Here and Now: the World Edition's 'Get Rich Quick' game mode comes in. Designed to be accessible to players of any age and more importantly to provide all the rags to riches excitement cherished from previous versions of Monopoly, condensed into shorter space of time, a full game in Get Rich Quick mode can take as little as 30 minutes depending on your configuration. This speed of play is achieved through the availability of varying levels of play and strategy built into the mode. At the outset of the game players agree to play at either the developer, industrialist, or tycoon levels. Big payoffs and fast turnarounds are the norm here, with the developer level offering the quickest play due to the leveling events incorporated within it. Through these, large leads can often quickly disappear, keeping the game competitive regardless of player's skill levels and initial bankroll. The result is quick, compelling and addictive family gameplay that is sure to make its mark on generations of would-be real estate tycoons for years to come.
Customer Reviews
No Xbox LIVE play is EPIC FAIL! The rest of the game is an impressive update on a classic, though.
This release is quite the anomaly. First off, I didn't even know it was out - a friend of mine who works at Electronic Arts told me that it had come out. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have known. Now that's not a fault of the game mind you, but for such a classic board game, you'd think it would be a little more promoted. That issue aside..
I was quite looking forward to playing it. I'm a Monopoly fan, and my wife is not, so I never get to play anymore. So I was looking forward to getting in some Monopoly. I sat down, fired it up, and played a few single player games. The game does a very good job at replicating the board game onscreen. There have been some Monopoly games on the PC in the past, and this one is quite good. The graphics look quite spectacular on my 46" HDTV. But the game play is right. So much so that there's a whole gaggle of custom rules you can put into play. Things such as "Land on Go, get double pay", "All tax goes into pile which is won by landing on Free Parking", Number of houses/hotels, mortgage rate, etc. The game play is pretty darned customizable, so that's a plus. There is a wide range of board themes. There's the obvious standard one, a future theme, a World Board, a Jungle Board, even food themes like chocolate and cheese. Each of these themes have appropriately named properties too (things like "Polar Bear Mountain" and "Blizzard Plains" for an ice themed board). There is a very strong variety of play here - without changing the basic game at all. And that is just in standard mode.
There is another mode called "Richest" Edition, where you play with some new rules. One of which is no money. Richest uses no money at all - when you owe someone money, you have to give or take properties. When I first played it, I thought it was going to stink - the formula is changed around a lot, but I have to say, I really ended up enjoying it. The lack of money gave the game a rather different, and very enjoyable feel to me. There are also mini games in between rounds in the "Richest" mode to play which are loosely based on certain aspects of Monopoly. The mini games are kind of hit or miss depending on which one you get (there's about a dozen different ones, including one bizarre one where you have to take X-Rays of the Pennybags character). But I do have to say I really took to the Richest Edition variant of game play. It's notably shorter than regular games of Monopoly, which is one thing to take into account.
So I was really quite enjoying this game, which brings me to the strongest negative to this title. THERE IS NO SORT OF MULTIPLAYER OVER XBOX LIVE! THIS IS A FAILURE OF EPIC PROPORTIONS! How a game like Monopoly could be created without any sort of online play in 2008 is beyond me. It's not like this a Gears of War game or a Halo 3 where you have to push massive amounts of bits up and down an Internet connection. It's Monopoly. I cannot fathom why there was no Xbox Live play here - it just boggles my mind that I cannot do this. This is such a major drawback, I can see it preventing a lot of people from buying the game. Yeah, there's multiplayer locally. You can play up to four people here on the same console. But to be honest, if I have four people in my living room, I'm going to play the real board game version. I might have been inclined to give this game five stars in my review, but the lack of Xbox Live play takes it down to three. It makes me think this omission is why the game ha a list price of $39 instead of the $59 most Xbox 360 games have.
Still, my feelings on lack of Xbox LIVE play aside, this is a very good representation of Monopoly. If you are big time into Monopoly, and always wanted to play but had nobody to do it with, this can work for you. It is a very good game of Monopoly, and the new modes bring a fresh flavor to a game that most of us know pretty darned well.
I wrote this review on the Xbox 360 version. It is also out on the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, as well as the Wii. I do not know the multiplayer situation on those, but if they can play online, and the 360 version cannot, I'll be even more irritated at that.
Great Title For Monopoly Lovers
First, let me just get this off my chest: I will never understand why people complain about something after they buy when they clearly know that one of the features is missing. All of the negative reviews complain that there is no online play and they hate the whole game for it. First of all, it clearly states that this is a single player only and doesn't include online play. Unfortunately some folks don't bother to read what they buy. That's like buying rotten tomatoes at the supermarket that are labeled "rotten" and then come home and start complaining that their tomatoes are rotten and how bad their supermarket is. Now as for MY review below...Yes, I did put "No Online Play" as a negative aspect, but I didn't penalize the game's rating because I knew what I was buying months before this title came out.
The Good:
*The classic game you love without the clean-up part afterwards.
*Several boards to unlock and choose from, including world board, ice board and even cheese board.
*Multiplayer games can be played with a single controller, if only one controller is available(pass controller around.)
The Bad:
*Online Play would've been nice.
*Richest Mode can be dubious with questionable mini-games.
*Mr Moneybags will just not shut up at times and you can't fast-forward what he says.
The Bottom Line:
A great alternative to your old cardboard game. Very colorful graphics that include animated Mr. Moneybags that hosts the games for you. My biggest gripe is the Richest Mode. For those that are not familiar with it, the game is played with 4 players(at least 1 human and 3 computers.) Each round four dice are rolled. The minigame that follows will determine who gets to choose one die first. For example, if a player chooses a 5, 5 of their tokens will land on random board spots. If property is unowned, it goes into their portfolio. If it is owned, they pay a rent of 1 property or more. There is no money involved in the Richest Mode. That is all good, but the concept that completely kills it for me is that if somebody lands on a community chest(regardless if its the last place or the first place,) the poorest player will usually get to steal the richest player's 3 properties! This means that you might as well flip a coin to figure out the winner as this becomes very very random and anyone can win at any time, mostly based on luck. Mini-games will also make you scratch your head. One particular one is a stocking-stuffer game, where everyone fills their stocking with items. Sometimes, one item is enough, but sometimes you need 5 to make it full, which makes no sense. However, because Richest Edition is simply an "extra" to the classic edition, I will not downgrade the rating because you do not have to play it. The classic edition plays perfect with no quirks. This title is a great buy for those who play monopoly often. If you don't play it often, it will simply collect dust.
Worth every cent!
Well firstoff some people i've seen complain that this has no online and on one hand i'd agree that blows due to the fact my brother and I live out of state and it'd be fun to play long distance. On the other hand it's like good riddance I can see trying to play this online and people bail after half an hour with no reason other than the online achievement wasn't going their way so they bail thus you lose cause you arn't able to play a full game. I've played monopoly over 20 years on console machines and always felt on default or semi hard the ai just plain flat cheated. Ie they'd get fixed rolls or strangly always give themselves good trades while never giving you a trade of decent sorts or on a fair basis. Ie they'd trade some useless thing always asking you to give them something in return that'd give them a monopoly like yeah i'm that dumb.... Speaking of achivements i've seen some complain that they may be too easy or you can get them with no problem overtime if you keep pushing for them. I say why are you buying this for achevements this is a game that's quite fun to play over and over with friends or against ai and is worth if regardless of them. Most people have 200 on uno but, alas continue to play it cause it's fun. Also, you can save one game so if playing with friends or wife or even the ai but, due to the fact classic monopoly can go awhile it's nice to be able to walk away and play later! Other than good ol' uncle money bags rants which at times get old it's rather good. And yes! you can customize most rules to how you play at home ie free parking gives you money. In the past most consoles versions wouldn't allow this or any other goofy rules that are popular in the home that people tend to play..... I haven't bothered to play the richest or mini games but, i'm guessing they're alright since most monopoly spin offs over the years have been alright yet, can never top the classic version so, you're probably buying this really for classic mode anyways. And so I leave this review with why are you reading this?!? You know you want this and it's good!!!
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