Mario Kart joins the fray in the exciting sequel to the Monopoly Gamer series! Play as one of four favorite Mario Kart characters in this fast-paced Monopoly race. In addition to purchasing key Mario Kart properties, players will recognize all the familiar Mario Kart elements such as banana peel tokens, toss shells, Coins, and power-up lanes!
Overview
Mario Kart is no longer a console-exclusive title. Now, you can experience the popular series on a Monopoly game board! Pick your favorite character out of Mario, Princess Peach, Luigi or Toad and get started on the race! Along the way, you get to zoom past iconic Mario Kart properties such as Bowser’s Castle, Rainbow Road and Bone-Dry Dunes – and even purchase them if you have the coins to! Be sure to dodge the many Mario Kart obstacles along the road while collecting as many coins as you can. Trigger a race from Mario Kart Cup when you pass Go!
What’s more, you can also power up your character by landing on a Super Star space and activating their special abilities! Roll a unique Power-Up die and let chance determine the boost you’ll get. May the best racer win!
What’s Included
A standard set of the Monopoly Gamer Mario Kart Board Game includes the following:
Pros
Perfect for lazy afternoons or spare pockets of time, one round of Monopoly Gamer Mario Kart finishes much faster than a classic Monopoly round. There are only two properties of each color set, and if a player lands on a property space but does not buy them, the property will go on auction. This game goes much quicker if you have the maximum of four players. If you are bored of three-hour-long Monopoly games, try the Mario Kart edition for a fun twist and a quicker game!
The gameplay of Monopoly ties in very well with Mario Kart. Instead of simply buying and trading properties from the Mario Kart world, the actual elements of Mario Kart are included in this game, such as races, boost pads, banana peels, coins, special abilities and power-up boosts. Although the instructions may be complicated for first-time players, the similarity of this game to Mario Kart makes it intuitive and easy to pick up.
Cons
Since this edition of Monopoly Gamer Mario Kart comes with only four characters, it may be limited in variety. Each character has their own special skill, so over time, the four options may be exhausted. The game does offer separate Mario Kart Power Packs featuring the additional characters Bowser, Shy Guy, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Rosalina, and Metal Mario, each with their own unique abilities, but this comes at an additional cost and is subject to availability. If you are looking to purchase just one game set and enjoy plenty of replayability, this may be one disadvantage to consider.
Also, the rules may be rather ambiguous regarding some situations. For instance, the guide does not explicitly state if you are allowed to roll the Power-Up die while in jail, or if you can bypass bananas on the board if your character has been powered up by Super Star – as it is in the video game. To get around this, it may be necessary to establish some house rules with the rest of your players.
One other disadvantage is that the coin chips are not made of plastic, but cardboard. They must be peeled off a cardboard card prior to playing the game, and the edges can be easily torn off if you are not careful while removing them. The character tokens are plastic, but we think that the currency being in cardboard detracts from the value of the game.
Overall Review
A fun game on the whole, we enjoyed the mix of Monopoly and Mario Kart. It was interesting to see how different elements matched up to create a product that was equal parts exciting and fun.
Monopoly Gamer Mario Kart definitely has that old-school feel to it and is the perfect mix between the two games. If you are a Monopoly and Mario Kart fan, we would highly recommend this game – both for the fun and the collectible player tokens! Additional characters can also be purchased to spice up the game once you have played with all four default characters.
Maria Garcia