If you aren't familiar with the USAopoly line of products, most of them are variations of the Monopoly game, only re-branded with the characteristics of a city, college, TV show or movie. To be honest, I've tended to stray away from anything except the original game because I'm the kind of person that gets completely thrown off by the name changes, not to mention any extra pictures on the board. USAopoly decided to stick with the G1 Transformers characters and designs and considering the hype and spectacle being thrown about over the new movie I thought that was interesting and for the first time (I believe) they've included alternate rules which I was insanely curious about.
My first impression when I saw the box art was instant joy that the designers at USAopoly chose to utilize the artwork from the 2002-4-ish Dreamwave revamp of the Transformers comic. Pat Lee and the artists in his studio at the time were doing some really great stuff with the original G1 characters and I remember being really jazzed by the super-realistic yet faithful anime influenced designs. From the back of the box we can get a first glimpse of what the rest of the game looks like, as well as noticing the old school grid design which is nicely melded into the background, unlike how plain and lazy it looked on the commemorative Toys 'r' Us Transformers re-issues.
As far as the tokens go, it's a pretty standard mix of characters, Optimus and Megatron, which are pretty much required, Soundwave and Starscream rounding out the Decepticons, and Bumblebee and Jazz rounding out the Autobots. I was sort of hoping for a set of tokens that reflected the original Monopoly pieces, say a Ravage in place of the dog, a Sideswipe in car mode instead of the normal racecar, or Preceptor in microscope mode in place of the thimble (because every group of Monopoly players needs the guy who has to call dibs on the pointless piece, thank you Cliff from Cheers) but I'll take what I can get. They're kind of small, but for the most part you can tell the apart. Actually for being so small, they managed to mold in the faction symbols, so kudos for that.
Basically you've got your standard Monopoly fare, money, houses and hotels, the game tokens, property cards, chance and community chest cards, as well as dice, board, and a rulebook. The money tray is pretty basic and lacks the improvements that the regular game has made (e.g. molded slots for the various pieces and cards as well as the money) but that's pretty nit picky.
The board looks really snazzy wrapped with a ton of comic art including another huge group shot that is an amalgamation of various comic covers and pin-ups. All of the properties have been re-dubbed with Transformers universe locations and items, one of the more cleaver changes being the railroads switching to the Ark, the Nemesis, the Space Bridge and the Transwarp Drive.
Actually all of the small Transformers details in the game are what really make this re-branding of Monopoly very attractive to me. I mean the dice are even red and purple. It's attention like that which really shows that some love went into the design of the game.
One of the other cool little touches that might actually be distracting in game play is the addition of the tech specs encoding on the chance and community chest cards. The game comes with a little red plastic reader to decode the cards, all of which are just reworded versions of the basic chance and community chest cards, though they've worked in the characters who are on the cards into the wording. I say this can get distracting because after the first few times you're not going to want to have to decode the message. At least it's a creative and faithful gimmick.
By far the only real disappointment I had with the design of the game was on the houses and hotels, both of which are just re-colored versions of the basic molds. The reason that this is so disappointing to me is because they were re-branded into Energon Cubes and Anti-Matter, and I thought it would have been so damn cool if the Energon Cubes were little purple clear plastic cubes instead of looking like houses. I'm sure that for cost reasons alone, this is prohibitive; I mean they can just use the same mold for every variation of Monopoly that they produce. There might also be a stipulation in the license that requires that they use the "houses" and "hotels" molds, sort of like how they keep the corner pieces on the board the traditional Monopoly spaces (again, it might also be to keep some of the Monopoly iconography so the game appears to be Monopoly.) I just think it was a missed opportunity.
As far as game play is concerned, it's pretty much business as usual with the only difference being whether or not you closely adhere to the faction choice at the beginning of the game. Based on the playing token you choose you will either be an Autobot or a Decepticon. This only really takes effect if you choose to utilize the optional new rules. So what are these new rules? Well, when rolling doubles you now have two options. One, you can take you turn and then roll again as in classic Monopoly, or two, you can choose to "transform" and based on the set of doubles you rolled you can perform a "transformation" action, some of which are slightly different based on what faction you chose at the beginning of the game. After you perform that transformation action you do not get to roll again. Here are the new doubles options:
Double 1's: Move your token to any space.
Double 2's: Collect $200
Double 3's: If an Autobot, you can remove one energon cube from any Decepticon's property (you still have to conform to the even building rule.) The owner of the house does't get the money for it. If a Decepticon, you can remove one energon cube from any Autobot's property (you still have to conform to the even building rule.) The owner of the house doesn't get the money for it.
Double 4's: If an Autobot, Draw an Autobot card (this is where it sort of matters since the Chance and Community Chest cards are different.) If a Decepticon, draw a Decepticon card.
Double 5's: If an Autobot, collect $50 from every Decepticon. And vice versa.
Double 6's: Attack to control another player's property. The player chooses another player's property. Each player takes a die. The player who rolls higher takes or keeps control of the property. In case of a tie, re-roll. You can not try and break up an already completed Monopoly.
Like I said, depending on how hard and fast you stick to the whole faction thing some of these options either might not apply (if every one is on the same side), or might be limiting (if you are forced to pick chance or community chest when you might want the other.) At the end of the day though these rules can help to brighten up your standard Monopoly game.
At the end of the day I was seriously impressed by how detailed this Transformers game is, branding-wise. For the novice fan who has nostalgia for the property, it's got a ton of info on the locations that you probably don't know which can add to the fun of the game for the first couple of plays. For the hardcore fan, it offers pretty design and enough faithfulness and legwork so that it won't seem too shallow or mainstream to be a part of a Transformers collection. For the Monopoly enthusiast who would like to try some alternate rules (beyond the more normal Free Parking house rules) than this is also worth a look.
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Transformers Monopoly.
