Transformers Monopoly Review

MSRP: $35 U.S. (though it can be found for as cheap as $25 on Amazon)
Released: May 2007

    With a blockbuster movie comes the inevitable onslaught of merchandise and board games, and the Transformers movie is certainly no exception. However, even though this board game's release was timed in a manner likely to take advantage of the movie hype, the Monopoly game is based off the original Transformers series-- both in terms of the original cartoon and movie, as well as the Dreamwave and IDW G1 comic series.
    Out of all the TF games released to coincide with the movie, Monopoly is the biggest stretch, and for obvious reasons-- Transformers hardly revolves around buying properties and eliminating the competition. The gameplay is identical to the original Monopoly, as you'd expect, though there is one rather cool "Transformers rule" that you can choose to add to the game. Normally, when you roll doubles in Monopoly you can move again, but in this game you decide to move again OR use a "special power" depending on which number you rolled doubles of. For example. if you roll double 2s you can collect $200, and if you roll double 4s you draw either an Autobot or a Decepticon card, depending on your faction. The coolest special power, though, is if you roll double 6s: Here you can attack another player to try to take control of their property! It's pretty simple-- whoever rolls the highest number wins-- but it adds a whole new dimension to the game, seeing as how you can actually take properties from players now without trading something else for it or bankrupting them. On the downside, however, beyond the pewter figures (mentioned in detail later), there is absolutely no new art made for this game. Everything is taken from either used Dreamwave or IDW art. Still, the game had a lot of fan input and it shows, with some really obscure properties such as Maccadam's Old Oil House.

    Excluding the corner spaces which are kept the same in every iteration of Monopoly, and the Autobot/Decepticon card spaces, the spaces around the board are as follows, in order:
- Decagon (Purple, $60)
- Autobase (Purple, $60)
- "Cover Detected"-- Pay 10% of your money or $200
- The Ark ($200)
- Maccadam's Old Oil House (Light blue, $100)
- Moon Base (Light blue, $100)
- Sonic Canyons (Light blue, $120)
- Shockwave's Tower (Pink, $140)
- Teletran-1 ($150)
- Combat Arena (Pink, $140)
- Kaon (Pink, $160)
- Space Bridge ($200)
- Sherman Dam (Orange, $180)
- Decepticon Command Bunker (Orange, $180)
- Dinobot Island (Orange, $200)
- Smelting Pools (Red, $220)
- Well of All Sparks (Red, $220)
- Chamber of Ancients (Red, $240)
- The Nemesis ($200)
- Junk (Yellow, $260)
- Quintessa (Yellow, $260)
- Vector Sigma ($150)
- Nebulon (Yellow, $280)
- Unicron (Green, $300)
- Iacon (Green, $300)
- Autobot City (Green, $320)
- Transwarp Drive ($200)
- Earth (Dark blue, $350)
- "Replenish Energon"-- Pay $75
- Cybertron (Dark blue, $400)

    Beyond just the different spaces, however, a lot of other things regarding the look of the game have changed. The pewter pieces are Jazz, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron, Starscream, and Soundwave (all in robot mode). Five out of the six are excellently carved and proportioned, though Jazz seems a little off-- they made him a bit TOO boxy, I think. The money still has the same value, but pictures of Transformers have been added to the money as well as the mottos for said Transformers. The $1 money has a picture of Bumblebee, $5 shows Soundwave, $10 shows Ultra Magnus, $20 shows Starscream, $50 shows Prowl, $100 shows Megatron, and $500 shows, of course, Optimus Prime. In addition, each property card has a short Transformers factoid on the back relating to said property. The dice are also different colors-- one is transparent red, the other transparent purple, which is a neat, unexpected change. What is the coolest change, however, is that Autobot and Decepticon cards have replaced the Chance and Community Chest cards. The cards still do the same things that they did in the original Monopoly, though there is a picture of a Transformer as well as a short explanation on the card. of why you get the reward/penalty that you do. (For example, one card says "Secure Plasma Energy Key-- ADVANCE TO CYBERTRON".) But what's really awesome about them is that you can't read what each card says without a very familiar piece of cardboard-framed transparent red plastic-- that's right, the card instructions are "hidden" just like the tech specs on the backs of the original G1 toy boxes! That's simply ingenious, right there, and a BIG thumbs up to whoever thought up that. However, one thing about the game that really should have been changed but wasn't are the house/hotel pieces. The game tries to compensate for this by making the houses purple and calling them "Energon cubes" and keeping the hotels red and callling them "Anti-Matter", but they're clearly houses and hotels, it seems downright silly to call them something completely different. I'm not sure if there's some sort of licensing deal where they HAD to use the houses and hotel pieces, but it seems rather silly to build Earth-style houses on Quintessa or the Sonic Canyons, for example.

    Overall, Transformers Monopoly is probably my least-recommended of the TF board games coming out this summer, due to the somewhat less exciting gameplay as well as the suspension of disbelief you have to immerse yourself in for stuff like the classic-style corner spaces and the house & hotel pieces. (Not to mention that you can buy Cybertron, but you can also buy properties ON Cybertron like the Sonic Canyon-- so wait, how does that work?) Still, there are a lot of neat little fan things included in the game, and it's obvious the people who put it together know their TF stuff. Mildly recommended.

Fun: 13/20
Creativity: 8/10
Board/Game Pieces Design: 16/20
Extra/Modified Rules: 9/20
Game Balancing: 15/15
Depth: 10/15

Overall Rating: 71/100 Good
 

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