Product Description

Monopoly Here & Now Wii

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #211 in Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Model: 19054
• Published on: 2008-10
• Released on: 2008-10-20
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platform: Nintendo Wii
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .62" h x 5.41" w x 7.51" l, .36 pounds

Features

• choose to wheel and deal your way to success on any of a variety of Monopoly boards, from the classic board to the World Edition board
• Compete to own some of the most recognized cities and landmarks on the globe as you make your way around the new World Edition board
• strategize your way to real estate success speedily in a new, super-fast version of the classic game
• fill up your passport to unlock never-before-seen Monopoly boards
• Play thrilling mini games that put your investment sense, business strategies and sheer competitiveness to the test

Amazon.com Product Description
Turn real estate into real entertainment as Monopoly, the biggest deal in classic board games comes to the Wii for the first time in Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition. Celebrating over 70 years of family fun, this new rendition of the legendary property trading game is sure to delight a new generation of players as it blends familiar turn-based board game style play with the energizing, Wii Remote based action modern gamers crave.

10 playable themed boards. View larger.

4-player mini-games galore. View larger.

Fast play in 'Get Rich Quick'. View larger.

Gameplay
As with all versions of Monopoly, gameplay in Here & Now: the World Edition is driven by turn-based rolling of the dice and the player's ability to secure and maintain control of real estate investments. In the Wii version players use the remote to roll the dice, with their piece moved around the board and rents deducted from their account automatically. Once this is done they have the choice to either visit the accounts screen, where all player owned properties and available cash are listed, or to allow the next player to roll. A new twist in gameplay involves the mini-games scattered throughout the board. These occur at different points in the game--for example, at the beginning of the game to determine who will roll first. They are quick detours from the main action and are generally designed to challenge players according to their standing in the game, thus making it tougher for first place players to pull away from their competition.

A New Game With New Boards
Although the game environment of Monopoly Here and Now: The World Edition is firmly rooted in the original game through its inclusion of a classically laid out board, with all the properties and playing pieces you remember, it also offers up new directions of play through its wealth of new board options. The game contains 10 playable boards. Each is individually themed, with properties reflecting that theme. Just a few of these themes included are, jungle, arctic, future, cheese, and deco. In addition, other available boards are designed after world capitals. As players access these boards they receive stamps on a virtual passport that when filled will unlock even more boards as they circle the globe becoming international real estate tycoons.

Key Game Features:

• Get Rich Quick - In this all-new, super-fast version, trade properties and compete in exciting mini-games designed to encourage fast monetary turnarounds, to see who makes the top of the rich list.
• Group Play - Up to four players can simultaneously join in on the "rags to riches" fun.
• Monopoly Past, Present & Future - The most extensive collection of Monopoly boards all in one package - from the newest Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition to classic Monopoly.
• Now Boarding - Fill up your passport as you play to unlock new and never-before-seen Monopoly boards.

30 Minute Games with 'Get Rich Quick'
A big part of the fun of the original Monopoly board game was the experience of going head-to-head against fellow players in games that could last for hours, depending on the roll of the dice and how much money and real estate assets were available. But not everyone wants to, or has the time to play a drawn out game like this. This is where Monopoly Here and Now: the World Edition's 'Get Rich Quick' game mode comes in. Designed to be accessible to players of any age and more importantly to provide all the rags to riches excitement cherished from previous versions of Monopoly, condensed into shorter space of time, a full game in Get Rich Quick mode can take as little as 30 minutes depending on your configuration. This speed of play is achieved through the availability of varying levels of play and strategy built into the mode. At the outset of the game players agree to play at either the developer, industrialist, or tycoon levels. Big payoffs and fast turnarounds are the norm here, with the developer level offering the quickest play due to the leveling events incorporated within it. Through these, large leads can often quickly disappear, keeping the game competitive regardless of player's skill levels and initial bankroll. The result is quick, compelling and addictive family gameplay that is sure to make its mark on generations of would-be real estate tycoons for years to come.

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Customer Reviews

Quite the disappointment
I am a big fan of Monopoly and was very excited to get my hands on this game (I pre-ordered it from Amazon). The short version of my review is to say that the Wii version is inferior in almost all respects to the X-Box version (and I don't mean the 360, the X-Box from 7 years ago). Although it is pretty to look at, the playability is horrible. The game has almost no configurable options (e.g., skip animations) and requires you to arrow over everything you want to do, even when there are no options other than to continue. Some of the buttons even require you to arrow over them, arrow off of them, then try again (bug). The game set-up options are also very poor, not even allowing you to set the game to play like the board version (e.g., you can't set the pay space between Park Place and Boardwalk to the correct fee). So, good eye candy but I think I'll stick with my old X-Box version.

Some Major Flaws
Okay so let me give you background. I bought the Wii for my wife so she can use the Wiifit. I am a 43 year old weekend Dad with a 14 year old daughter. I decided it might be cool to bring the family together to play video games since we all love them but there is not much interaction on a PC (especially when we are playing different games). I saw an advertisement for this game and thought, hey I loved it as a kid maybe the new wii version will be cool for the family. My wife and I tried the game out last night. We played one whole game all the way through. As a two player selection you end up with two computer players and I left the "easy" default on. The game basically is intact and plays like the real rules of the board game. There are some special features like different ways to play Monopoly and I will speak to those in a moment. So we started off playing and the first thing I notice after 2 rolls of the dice that there isn't a way to stop the music. I tried the usual suspects and nothing. The only option this game has is to turn on captions. The music is bad, real bad, annoying and repetitive. You can't even turn it down because you kind of have to hear the dialog of the game. Why? Well that leads me to my second complaint and it's a doozy! Even with my 42" HDDLP TV the playing surface is really small. They have a cheesy zoom feature but the game mechanics for it are not aligned correctly it just zooms to the corners. This game could have rocked. It could have been and should have been a killer recreation with neat graphics of a timeless board game. The ONLY redeeming quality which did catch a glimmer of interest was in the "Richest Edition" section of the game. We played some sort of "Future version" of Monopoly where you don't roll at all. I didn't really figure out the rules but it was entertaining with it's graphics and sounds for the tokens. All in all I would unfortunately have to say that this game is a waste of money. I mean I am stuck with it so I will try to play it with my kid next week but I doubt it will hold her interest for very long.

Poor graphics, clumsy controls, and that guy in the suit
The extra boards are nice, but you will never enjoy them, because in spite of those images you see in reviews, you will spend most of your time looking down at a 2-D board that is so poorly drawn you cannot read the names of the streets and have to go on color alone as a cue. It is even hard to tell which properties have houses on them from this view. It's painfully difficult to trade, build houses, etc. But worse of all, the man in the suit explains what you are doing as if you are in tutorial mode after and/or before every move you make. It is repetitive and annoying, and I would give it 3 stars if there were a mini-game that involved throwing tokens in his mouth until it was so full he finally shut up.