I remembered a while back I came across Monopoly: Ultimate Banking edition.

This was Hasbro’s latest (failed) attempt to digitalize the board game yet still keeping the board. , where property cards and cash are all stored within the electronic device.

I don’t think this should be the way the Hasbro takes its monopoly game. They are attempting to digitalize a game that should never be digitalized.

I have the multiple digitalized versions of monopoly. I have the Wii version, played the iPad version, and have a semi-electronic board game. Hands down, those versions were all terrible.

The semi-electronic board game was Hasbro’s first attempt at electronic banking, and it really isn’t as fun was it was advertised to be. I remember vividly as I pulled my mom over to the board game section in Toys “r” Us and pleading with her to buy it for me (“It’s electronic tooo!!!!”). I was so naive. Essentially it was the regular edition, with pieces and houses and community chests and chance, however instead of paper money, each player recieves a credit card — which stores all the money. The credit cards made transacting money painfully slow — and very tedious and repetitive, and people were always suspicious of each other that they gave others too much/too little money since the screen is very small (“Let me see it!/Let me do it!”). And it doesn’t have a ‘funness’ factor it used to have.

The fully electronic version is even worse (Wii version). Everything is taken away from the user’s control, leaving only a skeleton of what the game used to be — not that the game required much skill in the first place. Now the only “control” a user has is to trade, and the trading system is slow and not fun to use.

Monopoly was meant to teach people the unjustness of monopolies, but by accident, it also taught us much about corruption. It gives us the excitement with managing money (like we’re rich!) and being that corrupt banker that sneaks in extra $50 bills. Monopoly should be played as a board game, with cash and cards because the reason we bought the game in the first place is to witness the end: when someone flips the board over, scattering all the money and houses across the room, creating feelings of relief that the game is — finally — over.