We have a love-hate relationship with Monopoly in our household but Monopoly Gamer: Sonic the Hedgehog is upsetting the equilibrium.
I grew up on the game, not discovering Euro-games until I was married, and so have an affection for it. My husband loathes the game. For Christmas last year my son received Monopoly Gamer Mario Kart, which my husband refuses to play, but the rest of us thoroughly enjoy. The mechanic is so different from regular monopoly that it has a completely different feel to it. Much more like Mario Kart than Monopoly.
So I had high hopes for Monopoly Gamer Sonic The Hedgehog. After all, in my youth I was a Game Gear kid.
What Is Monopoly Gamer Sonic The Hedgehog?
Ostensibly, this is the Sonic edition of the beloved family game. However, outside the aesthetics of the board, Monopoly Gamer Sonic the Hedgehog is not much like the Monopoly we all grew up with. Less about buying and building, more about rings and boss fights. Early on in our first play of the game my eight year old proclaimed “Don’t you think Monopoly Gamer is a lot more cooler than regular Monopoly.”
Components
Game Board
4 Character tokens
4 Character cards
4 Reminder cards
8 Boss cards
16 Title deed cards
8 Chaos tokens
7 Chaos Emerald tokens
1 Master Emerald token
1 numbered die
1 Boost die with labels
90 cardboard rings (consisting of 50 golden rings and 40 five point rings)
Game guide
Setup
The setup of Monopoly Gamer Sonic the Hedgehog has one of my favorite things about cracking open a new board game: popping out the cardboard tiles.
There’s just something so cathartic about it. I always keep the frames, but have yet to actually do something with them. This game took it to a new level with a Boost die that you had to add the labels to. At which point, if you are like me, you will need to stop setup, hop on Etsy and look at all the variants of blank dice that can be purchased, be still my beating heart.
Once you’ve popped the tiles, labeled the die, and set up in your preferred Monopoly set up – who gets to distribute the cards, who has control of the money – you can set up some of the specifics. Boss cards go face down in numerical order, Chaos Emeralds go on their matching spaces. Each player gets a character token and card, you can choose from Sonic, Knuckles, Tails and Amy, and you start the game with five golden rings, one five ring, and 1 reminder card each.
Game Play
The basic mechanics of the game are a simple roll, move. and act on a space or purchase “property”, much like the original game, but that is where the similarities end.
Instead of building houses and hotels, you drop and collect golden rings as you make your way around the board. You collect any rings on the spaces you pass or land on, but not on the space you start with. Wherever you land, you follow the directions for that space, purchase, pay, or special space.
Then the next person rolls, and does much the same. At the end of a turn, you may offer to buy, sell, or trade properties with the other players. Properties are the only things that can be traded.
At that point, if the player has landed on or passed GO, it triggers a boss fight and the top boss card is flipped over.
During a boss fight you do not fight alone, you get to pick a sidekick to work alongside you.
As the game progresses, all players will have been collecting Chaos Emeralds. It is wise to choose a sidekick that has obtained a Chaos Emerald, as you may re roll during a boss fight for each Chaos Emerald involved. To fight the boss, you and your sidekick each roll the numbered die once (re-rolling for Chaos Emeralds). If your combined roll is equal to or higher than the boss’s HP, then you win.
You get to keep the boss card, take that boss’s emerald, and your sidekick gets to take a chaos token. Boss cards and Chaos tokens are worth points at the end of the game, Chaos Emeralds only value is in the re-roll ability. If your combined roll is less than the boss’s HP, then you lose. At this point you can re-roll for each Chaos Emerald your team has, to try and steal victory back. If you win, you follow the rules for winning, if you lose, you get nothing. The boss card and Emerald are now out of play and belong to Dr Eggman. The Chaos tokens stay where they are.
The final boss fight is always Dr Eggman. When you get to the final fight, his HP is increased by 1 for every two Chaos Emeralds that you lost to him during the rest of the game. You can still re-roll for any Chaos Emeralds you have, and you still fight alongside a sidekick, but you will be fighting a much stronger opponent. If you lose to Dr Eggman you can still finish the game, he just takes the Master Emerald with him.
Special Spaces/Cards
- LOOP When you land on a loop space, you go directly to the next loop space, picking up any rings that you pass.
- RING When you land on a ring space, you roll the die and take that many coins from the bank.
- CHOPPER When you land on a chopper you drop two rings, one on the chopper space, and one behind you.
- BOOSTER When you land on a booster space your character’s unique ability is activated and you follow the directions on the card.
Winning the Game
Ultimately, winning the game is fairly simple: The person with the most points wins. With a combination of collecting rings, fighting bosses and buying property, it’s still that old tried and true Monopoly ethos, those with the most will rule the day. However, if there is a tie, the player with the Master Emerald wins, even if they were not one of the tying players!
Should You Buy Monopoly Gamer Sonic The Hedgehog?
If you enjoyed Monopoly Gamer Mario Kart, then absolutely. The game is different enough to make both interesting, and not enough like Monopoly to put off those who don’t like the traditional dynamic of the game.
This is a great game to play on any long days at home that might be coming up for you. It would also work well to play remotely, since none of the cards are hidden from the other players. Just start up that zoom meeting and aim your webcam.
