Even the Monopoly man is now moving with the times. Monopoly - the world's most popular board game - has undergone a major facelift and the biggest casualty is the famous play money. The Here & Now Edition with Electronic Banking replaces cold hard play money cash with credit cards and a calculator style machine to swipe them with. And that's not the only change: Hasbro has replaced the dog and iron playing pieces with a burger and mobile phone.
Tapping into the trend of using credit cards rather than cash, the object of the game and the rules remain exactly the same in this new edition of Monopoly. However for transactions, there are six plastic credit cards included, along with a small machine that looks like a calculator. Players swipe their card on the left hand side to receive credit and swipe on the right hand side for debit. There is a dedicated button for passing 'Go' (which automatically deposits £2M into your card) as well as a button for thousands (K) and millions (M). Players simply enter the amount using the keypad and press either one of these buttons to complete the transaction. We are eagerly awaiting an Australian edition of this game, as the currency is currently only available in UK pounds.
The new transaction system is a mixed bag. On one hand the updated technology and coolness factor of the credit cards will surely have many people excited. We were definitely intrigued when the game landed at the office. But after playing it a number of times, the wow factor definitely wears off. The biggest issue is speed; when picking up a Chance or Community Chest card that requires you to collect money from each player, the credit card process is slow and frustrating. Each player has to put their card into the debit side of the machine and transfer money to the other players account. It really is much quicker and easier just handing over a couple of dollar bills.
One thing we did like about the Electronic Banking edition was the fact that it is extremely difficult to cheat. Remember all the times when you stepped out for a drink only to have your hard earned Monopoly money stolen by your mate? Thankfully, those days are over. Even if one of your esteemed colleagues tries to deposit a quick 20 billion pounds onto his card, he'll more than likely be caught as the machine makes a rather irritating sound when a transaction is being made. On the downside, this does get annoying after a while and there is no way to turn it off.
Overall, the Here & Now Electronic Edition still provides the same amount of fun as previous editions of Monopoly, but we prefer the play cash version. Call us stubborn but the thought of winning Monopoly with a pile of cash higher than CentrePoint Tower in front of you is much more satisfying than a piece of plastic.
