University Games Anti-Monopoly Board Game Review

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(More customer reviews)Perhaps there is a trick to this game that I am missing, but so far I have found it immensely frustrating. The concept is that you either play as a Monopolist or a Competitor. It is very difficult to win when playing as a competitor, because the rents you charge are much lower, although you pay the same amount as the monopolist for everything. For example, the railroads cost $200, both of you have to pay that amount. The competitor charges $20 rent. If the competitor owns all four railroads, he still only charges $20 rent. However, if the monopolist buys all four railroads, he charges $320 rent. Considering you only receive $100 for passing Go, landing on a railroad could bankrupt you if you are the competitor.
As far as property is concerned, you both still pay the same to own a property, and you pay the same amount for houses and hotels. However, the competitor charges much less rent. For a property with three houses, a competitor may charge $25, while a monopolist will charge $50. As a competitor, you never make back as much money as you spend.
The first four or five times we played this game, the monopolist easily won. The last time we played it, the competitor managed to survive, and the game was "balanced". Then all we did was exchange money back and forth--competitor lands on my property, he pays me. I land on his, I pay him. There was no real way to win the game at that point. The game went on for at least two hours, and I have never been so bored playing a game in my life. We thought if we kept playing the game, we would get better at it and it would become more enjoyable. I think the most enjoyable part of this game would be watching it burn.

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It's a new spin on an old classic. A featured family game for 2005, Anti-Monopoly is a twist right out of today's headlines: free market competitors clash with ruthless monopolists. Players must choose free enterprise or monopoly, and each group must adhere to different rules. Is the winner the competitor who charges fair market value for rent' Or the monopolist who takes control over entire regions and charges higher fees' For 2-6 players.

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Monopoly Review

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(More customer reviews)This Monopoly set was cheaply produced in China, as you might guess given its price. For a family looking for a first set, it seems satisfactory. But anyone who has played Monopoly for years should be on notice that this set, redesigned in 2008, includes several minor annoyances.
First, the most practical annoyance. The board folds up into quarters, which allows the manufacturer to fit the set into a smaller box, presumably to reduce production costs. But because the box is somewhat smaller (about 16 inches long), there is no room for the sort of convenient tray for Monopoly money that was once standard in the old boxes (which were about 20 inches long). This is annoying for both gameplay and storage.
Second, the producers have unnecessarily and inexplicably made small changes to the rules of the game -- rules that have stood for more than half a century. Landing on the Luxury Tax space used to cost you $75; now it costs $100. The new rules also change the numbers of each kind of bill to be apportioned to players at the start of the game -- and in fact, the game comes with a smaller supply of some bills.
Mention of this set's Monopoly money brings us to the third annoyance: the manufacturers made numerous gratuitous changes to the look of the game. The palette of colors used for Monopoly bills in the United States since the 1940s has been changed: The $10 bill used to be yellow; now it's blue. The $50 bill used to be blue; now it's purple. (These changes make it hard to reuse money from older Monopoly sets.) Among the other unnecessary changes to the look of the game: The formerly purple properties on the board (Mediterranean Avenue and Baltic Avenue) have been recolored brown. The Community Chest and Chance cards are now printed on white cardstock instead of the familiar orange and yellow, and the classic drawings on those cards have been replaced with computer-generated 3D cartoons. Even the "Go" space has been redesigned: now the word "Go" is written in black instead of the familiar red. (Stodgy purists might also be put off by the various alterations to font, logo, and other design elements.)
To be sure, these changes do not alter the fundamentals of the game itself. But they are annoying enough that anyone with nostalgic memories of the game from childhood should consider a different set.

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Everybody remembers the Monopoly game - that's why it's still the most popular, most widely played, and best-selling board game in the world! Across the generations and around the globe, what other game brings back so many memories of wheeling-and-dealing family fun' No other game has turned so many game playing moments into memories! Whether you're discovering the fun for the first time or reliving the carefree days of youth, get out there and Buy! Sell! Mortgage! Build houses and hotels! And collect those rents! That's what makes Monopoly the great American game - just ask Rich Uncle Pennybags! For 2 to 8 players. Game includes: game board, 10 tokens, title deed cards, play money, chance cards, community chest cards, 32 houses, 12 hotels and two dice.

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