The Op sent us a copy of Monopoly Junior: Paw Patrol for review, how’d it go? As with the standard version, this is a 2-4 player dice rolling game of buying up properties, collecting money, and picking up mission cards. When a player runs out of money, the game ends and players count up their money. The player with the most money wins the game. This is a nice kids version of the game that focuses on Paw Patrol, but also takes a classic game and changes a couple rules to make it a fast playing hopeful game for kids.
What’s in the Box?
- 36 Sold Markers (9 of each color)
- 4 Pup Tokens
- 1 Board
- 70 “1 dollar” Monopoly Junior Money
- 24 Mission Cards
- 1 Die
- 1 Rulebook
How’s it Play?
Just like in other monopoly games, players roll the die and moving their pawn around the board buying properties. If a player lands on a unowned property they have to buy it with the listed price shown on that space. They place a sold marker on that space so in the future players know who owns which properties on the board. If a player lands on another player’s property with a sold maker of another player’s, they have to pay that player the listed amount of money shown on the board.
Properties are grouped together with colors, and if a player owns both properties of the same color, the other players have to pay double the shown price when landing on those spaces. Players draw mission cards when landing on the mission ceases on the board. Free parking is a free space to land where nothing happens. Go To Jail space places you in jail where you need a ‘get out of jail for free’ card or pay 1 dollar to get out your next turn.
Players continue until a player runs out of money, and at that time the player with the most money wins the game.
The Verdict
Having played board games for a long time, I know Monopoly gets a bad rap. I grew up playing it, and I really liked what it did. Looking back on it, yes the game never ends and it all depends on your negotiating, but it was still fun to play growing up. I think versions have helped solve some of the problems with the game.
This game is for players 5 years old and older and has a Paw Patrol theme to help get the kids excited about the game. So kids like it for that, and because they get to move their pup marker and hope they land on something good.
The game does a good job cutting down on the time it takes to play, something the original failed to do. In this version, you have to buy the property when landing on it. If you have 3 dollars and it costs 3 dollars, then you buy it and have no more money. So sometimes you might be presented with a time you actually don’t want to buy a property because you don’t have a lot of money. But the rules state you have to buy it. So this just lowers the playing time with events like these happening.
Also if you invest a dollar in a property, it only takes one person to land on it to get your money back, and that goes for any property. So yes you still want properties, but keep a eye out on your cash on hand, because you don’t want to be cheering “I want a 5”, when in reality you probably don’t want a 5.
Lastly, my kids had never played any Monopoly game ever before. So they actually really liked what the game offered. After a couple of plays, I introduced to them ‘house rules’. We added 4 dollars to the middle of the board for free parking, meaning if you landed on GO you got 4 dollars instead of the normal 2. We made a rule where once all properties were bought, players could then trade with each other. They really liked the game and even though the choices in the game are slim to none, the kids still liked seeing how lucky they got playing the game and hoping other players landed on their properties.
Images via The Op
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