Monopoly Deal

How often can a quality evening's worth of entertainment be found at the supermarket checkout isle (for those of us not into the tabloids)? That logic's exactly how I ended up with the Monopoly Deal card game. A couple of dollars for a game that promises 2-5 player participation, game times of roughly 15-minutes, and a learning curve of ages 8 and up? Can't go wrong.

Within the package are 110 Monopoly-themed cards and a full color rule sheet. Classic Monopoly players will waste little time getting acquainted with the Deal deck's style as everything from the famous property names to the "Pass Go" icon, to the unmistakable "Monopoly money" bills are included in card form.

The goal of the game this time around is to simply be the first player to collect 3 complete property sets (meaning the same color and that can include wilds). Each player is dealt 5 cards and a draw and play pile are setup in the middle of the table. A turn consists of a player drawing two cards and playing up to three. Sounds simple right? Not so fast.. Unlike traditional Monopoly, this deck contains many cards that put the screws to your opponents! Among these are cards that allow you to simply take someone else's property, force them into swapping for one you're trying to get rid of, there's even one that allows you to steal a whole property set (watch out, this one can make enemies)!

Of course, games like this are only as good as they allow you to rebut and fortunately, this one delivers. Should your opponent get cute with a trick card that demands one of your goods, the "Just Say No" card tells them to take a proverbial hike. Unless they happen to throw a "Just Say No" of their own which nullifies yours.

Other goodies include the "It's My Birthday" card which forces all of the other players to fork over a cool 2M as a present and the "Debt Collector" which demands 5M from anyone you choose. Rent is still a great way of fattening up your bank account but since there are no little thimbles circulating a board to land on your property, "Rent" cards can be thrown to charge your opponents. And just like in classic Monopoly, the amount you receive is dependent upon whether or not you have a complete set and whether you placed a house or hotel upon it.

Pacing, as should be expected, is much quicker than the board game edition and after a few rounds, really increases in pace. It's not a particularly difficult game to learn and fans with experience in playing the board game should have a bit of an edge going in. However, after just two or three rounds, the intuitive nature of the game really starts to shine through.

I went into the game a bit skeptical as, after all, how good of a game really be when it shares rack space and price with a King Size Snickers bar but honestly, it's difficult to find anything negative about Monopoly Deal (except maybe that some will find having their complete property set stolen away highly irritating). Deal manages to take all of the elements that made Monopoly such a successful board game throughout the years and condenses it down to a fast-moving, 15-minute throw down. Somehow it captures a bit of the classic feeling associated with card games like Uno and Phase10 in the process as well. Solid family fun all the way.