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Our princess is in a hotel on Boardwalk — Mario’s ‘Monopoly Gamer’ is here

Daven Mathies
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How to Play: Monopoly Gamer w/ Mario, Princess Peach, Donkey Kong & Yoshi - Hasbro Gaming
Monopoly Gamer, which sees the world of Mario collide head on with the world of Monopoly, is not something we asked for — but now that it’s here, we really want to play it. The new board game, a result of a collaboration between Nintendo and Hasbro, is not just a re-skinned version of classic Monopoly. This is much more than a simple collection of new game tokens; it has new rules, new unique player abilities, and even boss fights.

Perhaps the first thing players will notice is that the beloved paper Monopoly money has been replaced with gold coins straight out of a Mario level. One of the goals of the game is to collect these coins, which can be done in myriad ways (including rolling a power-up die that replaces one of the standard dice). Coins alone do not determine the winner, however, as they merely contribute to a player’s overall score. Points can also be earned by buying properties and defeating bosses.

A boss fight is triggered whenever a player passes the “Go” starting space. The player draws a boss card and must pay the price in coins listed on the card in order to fight the boss. Then, the player must roll a single die and try to get a number higher than the one indicated on the card. If successful, the player then gets to reap the rewards, which include points and potentially a property from the board for free.

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Monopoly Gamer game board with tokens and cards

Monopoly’s age-old silver tokens have been replaced with large, full-color figures of Mario, Princess Peach, Yoshi, and Donkey Kong. Each character has two unique special abilities, one that boosts the power-up die if it lands on a specific side, and one that activates when a player lands on the Super Star space. These include Princess Peach’s hilariously mundane Super Star ability to “collect rent from the bank.”

The game is littered with other small homages to the Mario universe, from the property cards named after game levels to green and red shells that cause other players to drop coins on the board. While the game includes just the four characters mentioned above, additional characters can be purchased in “power packs” for $3, which is how players will find Luigi, Wario, Diddy Kong, and more.

The base game will retail for $25 and be available in August, but a collector’s edition is available now exclusively through Gamestop. The collector’s edition costs $40 and includes a bonus Bowser player token, a Bowser Jr. boss fight card, and five character stickers so you can show your support for your favorite character.

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