Monopoly Madness review for Nintendo Switch, PS4/5, Xbox One/Series X

It?s important to go into Monopoly Madness expecting the right thing. If not, you?ll come away very disappointed.

If, for example, you go in expecting something that resembles Monopoly, you?re probably not going to like what you find. It may feature some of the Monopoly trappings ? mainly just Uncle Pennybags (aka Mr. Monopoly, depending on how you know him) and bidding for properties ? but, as it states right in its eShop description, there?s no board to be found. So this isn?t the Monopoly that generations of families have played/loved/fought over.

If, however, you go in hoping for a party game that happens to have a Monopoly theme, then you might like it a lot more. Because that?s exactly what this is: a pretty solid party game where you and up to five other friends run around themed arenas, battling to pick up money and power-ups so that you can bid on, buy, or upgrade properties. I might go so far as to essay it?s certainly Monopoly-adjacent, but, again, it?s not Monopoly.

But that?s not inherently a bad thing. In fact, it?s fun to see the game embrace its competitive side to this extent. It?s obviously always been there ? I mean, I?m sure mine wasn?t the only family who set a time limit whenever we played the game, with the limit just so happening to coincide with the start of the inevitably brutal endgame ? but here your onscreen avatars are literally fighting it out for money and properties. You suck up dollars at the expense of your rivals, you box them in with special power-ups that impede their movement, you push and shove and daze anyone who gets in your way: think of it as Monopoly?s subtext made text.

It?s also nice to see that there?s a decent amount of content here. While it would have been easy enough for Ubisoft to slap the Monopoly brand on a cheap collection of mini-games, instead they made an effort to give a wide range of boards and characters, and even added a story mode in case you want to play solo.

You really should play Monopoly Madness with others, though. And that?s a recommendation, too, not just a statement of fact. It?s easy enough to pick up that almost anyone can play, while each match is both short and competitive enough that it?s the sort of thing that you?ll actually want to play it with others. It?s not Monopoly, to be sure ? but in this case, that works surprisingly well.

Ubisoft provided us with a Monopoly Madness Switch code for review purposes.