Despicable Me 2 Monopoly Review

Happy New Year. Hard to believe that it is 2014 already. This past Christmas, like many times before, we had some new board games under the tree for the family to try out. This year it was Big Bang Theory Clue (a very fun version of that game) where you try to determine who annoyed Sheldon, what they did and where they did it in classic Clue fashion. The other game was a new Despicable Me 2 version of Monopoly.

Over the years, we have owned (and played) a lot of branded Monopoly games; from the original to Dog-opoly to the Monopoly Horse lover's edition. Of them all, I think that the Despicable Me 2 version is the most accessible for younger players and has the best play improvements over the original I could ever imagine.

In classic Monopoly (if you have never been exposed), you move your metal game piece (all shaped like a familiar object - car, dog, thimble, etc.) around a the game board buying properties and upgrading (placing houses and hotels) them once you have a set of the same color properties. As you go around the board, if you land on properties owned by other players you have to pay rent to stop there. The game ends when all other players have gone bankrupt except the winner. There are nuances to the game, of course, in that you can mortgage properties you own to get some quick cash, you can trade with other players, etc.

In Despicable Me 2 Monopoly, the game has been simplified for a younger audience. The game pieces have been replaced by minions, which are all unique and according to the box there are 50 of them. The houses and hotels have been replaced by cupcakes and sundaes. Most importantly, the dice have been replaced by a spinning top and the potential outcomes of a spin are 1 - 6 (as opposed to the 2 - 12 with the dice version). To accommodate the lower move numbers (1 - 6), the number of properties on the board have been reduced by 1 per set and there are no utilities or railroads. As is typically the case, each property is named for a significant item from the Despicable Me movies (Park Place and Boardwalk are now the Pyramids and the Moon).

Each player starts with a certain number of banana bucks (the currency in the game) and each buck has a value of 1. In addition to the changes listed above, there are three big rule changes that make the game easier, more accessible and faster.

1. If you land on an unowned space, you must buy it.
2. When you buy a space, you get to place a cupcake on it (you upgrade that to a sundae when you own both spaces of a color set).
3. If you go to jail, you pay and get out of jail the very next turn.

As little as those changes seem, they really do change the whole dynamic of the game. You go from a game that can take hours (in some cases) and drag on as you try to drive all of your opponents into bankruptcy to a quick game that will take 30 - 45 minutes to complete. It also removes a lot of the bank work by reducing the transactions in the game to solely buying properties and paying rents.

This version of Monopoly is rated for kids ages 5 and up. I am not sure if it will hold the attention of kids at age 5, but for those at 7 - 10, it will be great. The spinning to determine how much you move, the simplified Monopoly game board and mechanics and the minion theme are all great and should be more than enough to hold the attention of a younger player. For those adults, it is cute and the shorter game play makes it more accessible than sitting down to a full-blown Monopoly game.

If you like Monopoly, minions and don't care for how long the original game takes, then this is the version of Monopoly for you. Despicable Me 2 Monopoly gets 4 Mick Happies. Next time, I hope I get the Pyramids and the Moon!