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Monopoly Madness

Monopoly Madness

The capitalist classic is back in a new form, offering a surprisingly fresh and entertaining experience with plenty of speed and flair.

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Board games have undergone an unprecedented renaissance in the last ten years, evolving from something common people associate with children to a widely accepted social hobby for adults. So it's hardly surprising that we've also seen an increased presence of board games on both PC and consoles, with many of the genre's greats now represented. Many have had brilliant digital conversions and now it's time for the classic Monopoly to make a grand comeback too. And I know what you're thinking, because how exciting can it possibly be to have another version of one of the world's most widely used and outdated board games?

Monopoly Madness

What quickly became apparent during the first few minutes of Ubisoft's Monopoly Madness was how little this game actually shares with its analogue, ancient predecessor. Virtually everything is unrecognisable and while the basic concept remains the same (focusing on acquiring plots and then building on them) the approach is completely new. Gone is the typically slow turn-based gameplay and in its place you'll find a chaotic party game. Monopoly Madness is a wild game where all players move freely around the board with the simple goal of buying more houses than their opponents. These are randomly made available during the course of the game and players are free to bid for them with the resources that randomly materialise on the board, provided you get there before your opponents, that is.

Monopoly Madness
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Because when it comes to putting obstacles in the way of your opponents, there are plenty of options to prevent them from reaching and bidding on the houses that appear. These include giving them a simple smack with the knockback attack that all characters have, or being a little more creative and building obstacles in the way of opposing players. The key to success lies in being constantly observant, which is anything but easy on the often incredibly chaotic game board that can get a little overcrowded with events at times. And it's here that I'd like to direct the brunt of my criticism at Monopoly Madness, because despite the developers doing a great job of making the game feel fresh and new, it quickly becomes incredibly tedious and the audio-visual elements quickly become a serious grind.

Monopoly Madness

Gameplay-wise, Monopoly Madness offers pretty much what you'd expect. There's a campaign where each new level comes with unique challenges and objectives to complete but also a classic free-for-all, as well as both online and local multiplayer. The latter can almost be seen as a must for this type of digital board game so I'm grateful that Ubisoft has chosen to include this, which is also the game mode that is undoubtedly the most entertaining, because at the end of the day, there's not much that beats sitting on the same couch and yelling at your friends, which is also the game's greatest strength. As for the single player, there's very little to be gained here beyond the relatively lacklustre single-player campaign, and the online portion doesn't look terribly promising either, with empty lobbies as far as the eye can see.

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Monopoly Madness is best played with family or friends gathered around the same TV, each holding a controller, and the tumultuous game rules lend themselves well to making each game unique. As long as you can endure the colourful bombardment of its visuals, something that definitely shows that Monopoly Madness appeals mainly to a slightly younger audience. But for those who know you appreciate chaotic party games and have plenty of friends or family to invite over, Ubisoft's freaky take on classic Monopoly offers straightforward, light-hearted entertainment, as a kid-friendly, colourful if slightly less identifiable pastime.

06 Gamereactor UK
6 / 10
+
Chaotic. Charming. Easy to play.
-
Lacks identity. A bit too simple.
overall score
is our network score. What's yours? The network score is the average of every country's score

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Monopoly Madness

REVIEW. Written by Marcus Persson

The capitalist classic is back in a new form, offering a surprisingly fresh and entertaining experience with plenty of speed and flair.



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