Over the weekend, Mark, Meiyen, Rachel and I played a game of Monopoly – not the board game version, but a new card game version that Hasbro just launched.
You can try playing it online HERE. The folks at Hasbro had cleverly made a very accurate online demonstration of the card game being played.
When we started reading the rules, all four of us were rather befuddled and confused, being too used to the old way of playing Monopoly on a board.
The card game version is played using a SINGLE deck of cards – with action cards, money cards and property cards all mixed together. We were very puzzled by this at first and even tried sorting out the cards into three piles accordingly, defiantly following our instincts rather than the game rules.
It’s a good thing the game set comes with accompanying “Quick Start” cards. The card has the line “Start playing and all will become clear… WE PROMISE!” printed in bold. We were skeptical at first, but decided to take the advise anyway as we were getting nowhere arguing over the game rules which we each interpreted differently.
There were still some level of discomfort when we plunged into the game directly, still unclear of the game rules. However, the advise from Hasbro was proven right after we went through a few turns – it did became clear (and fun too).
To win the game, a player has to be the first to accumulate three complete sets of properties. During our virgin play… I looked set to become the first winner, having accumulated two and a half set of properties first.
Then, Mark drew a card and started laughing wildly to himself. Something was amiss. He drew a “Deal Breaker” card. The card allows him to steal a complete set of property from a player. He took mine gleefully. This was a high point during our game as none of us had played this before and were caught by surprise by the ruthlessness of this particular action card.
We carried on for a few more rounds. Eventually, the surprise winner was Rachel who quietly accumulated her properties without any of us noticing.
Initially, we wanted to just play one game and then head out for supper. However, we had so much fun that we forgot about the time and went for another round. Mind you… the sum total of our ages is over a hundred years old, and there we were playing Monopoly happily like we were back in our teens again. It goes to show what’s fun then will still be fun again, even if Monopoly has shifted from board play to card play. 🙂
If you are interested to purchase the game, you can buy it online from Hasbro or visit the toy department in major departmental stores.
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