MONOPOLY is back on Nintendo Switch with a new 3D take from Ubisoft on the beloved board game classic. Check out our MONOPOLY review!
MONOPOLY Is back on Nintendo Switch with a new 3D take from Ubisoft on the beloved board game classic. Last time around, Ubisoft went with a more colorful version that took place in Monopoly Town. That was 2021. It’s now 2024, and we’re getting a revamped experience in which you’ll be doing what makes MONOPOLY, well, MONOPOLY. That’s right, you’ll be buying, selling, and trading properties as you aim to make the most of your hard-earned money in order to slowly but surely build your empire as you take over as much real estate as possible while rolling the dice and moving through the board, all while you look at a fully animated 3D city. And yes, that does mean there are day and night cycles and weather cycles to add some extra variety.
MONOPOLY is a board game staple that has been around for decades. It was first introduced way back in 1935 – yes, really! – by Parker Brothers, who acted as the game’s publisher up to 1991, when the company was bought by Hasbro. It’s now 2024, and MONOPOLY has been printed in more than 40 languages and has sold hundreds of millions of copies around the world. This Nintendo Switch version allows up to six players to join in on the fun locally, and it also supports online multiplayer for up to six players so that you can try to win it all as you duke it out against gamers from all over the glove. On top of that, the game supports cross-play, so you can play with others playing on Nintendo Switch or PlayStation 5 without issues.
At the bottom of the screen, you’ll be able to see the player information that shows each player’s token, how much money they have, the player order, and whose turn it currently is. Once it’s your turn, you’ll be able to see which actions you can choose from. You can check out your inventory to review all of your current assets as well as how much money you have. You can also check other players’ inventory and try to start a trade. This is useful for when you, say, need one property to complete a set. All that matters is that you never stop making more money!
Your overall goal is very simple: roll the dice to move your token around the board as you buy as many properties as you can as you aim to control all sets. This will allow you to collect rent from any player who lands on one of your properties. The more properties you own, the more rent you’ll collect as you move closer and closer to ruling the city. You can play the game with the classic set of rules, or you can customize your experience with house rules. Some examples include having all money from fines or taxes be added to a common fund that can be collected when someone lands on the Free Parking square or receiving M1000 when rolling snake eyes – that would be a pair of ones.
You can also choose to play in Fast Mode. For this one, you can pick a specific goal to complete in order to win the game. You could, for example, require players to build at least one house on each property of a complete color set they own. Another option is to make it so that the first player to M1800 wins the game. Or maybe you’d like to have whoever is the first to own a specific number of properties be declared the winner. The other option is playing in Speed Die Mode. This will add a third die so that all players can go faster. That one will be the aforementioned Speed Die, which will have the numbers one through three, two sides with Mr. MONOPOLY, and one side with a bus icon.
Land a triple, and you’ll be able to move to any spot on the board! Have the Speed Die land on the bus icon, and you can choose between the combined value of the two dice or choose the value of a specific die to move forward. If you throw a Mr. MONOPOLY, you will first move over the board with the values of the white dice. Once actions are finished for that throw and a property is still available for sale, you will move towards that location where you can buy or auction the property. If no property is available for sale, you will move toward the first unmortgaged owned property of another player, where you must pay the corresponding rent. If all other properties are mortgaged, you will stay at the last position on the board.
If you have a Ubisoft Connect account linked to your Nintendo account, then you can work on completing a series of challenges to obtain coins. These include community objectives, such as being sent to jail by any means, as well as individual objectives, like playing three online matches, building 3 hotels, receiving M250 from lucky cards or the community chest, buying all green and dark blue properties in a single game, or pushing another player’s piece 5 times by moving yours. Some of the rewards you can claim right away at no extra cost, as is the case for some tokens to use in the game. The free options include a plane, a camera, and Ezio from the Assassin’s Creed series, because… why not? As for the things you can unlock by spending your hard-earned coins, they include a silver T-Rex token, a panda one, as well as a golden Rabbid token from the Rabbid sub-series.
MONOPOLY is back with a new 3D take on the beloved board game classic. Last time around, Ubisoft went with a more colorful version that took place in Monopoly Town. That was 2021. It’s now 2024, and we’re getting a revamped experience in which you’ll be doing what makes MONOPOLY, well, MONOPOLY. That’s right, you’ll be buying, selling, and trading properties as you aim to make the most of your hard-earned money in order to slowly but surely build your empire as you take over as much real estate as possible while rolling the dice and moving through the board, all while you look at a fully animated 3D city. And yes, that does mean there are day and night cycles and weather cycles to add some extra variety. MONOPOLY is available on Nintendo Switch with a $29.99 price tag.
Disclaimer
This MONOPOLY review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Ubisoft.
