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We just came back from the cottage and we had a wonderful time. I have to admit, it was rough for me because we had neither cell phone service and limited (and I mean limited) WIFI. This may seem like a small deal when you are suppose to be on vacation but for me it was just stressful. My sister texted me with some questions and I told her that I hadn’t responded because we had no WIFI… ugh… I said, how crazy is that? She said: Your social media can wait… Just enjoy your vacation.
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With those wise words, I did exactly that. I made a priority of spending less time on-line (because I had no choice, duh) and more time on doing things with the family. We went to the beach, we went on a hike, we went to a National Park, we went to Tobermory for lunch. We spent the morning working on puzzles and then at night we watched a few movies but the best night was when we played board games. Family game night was re-established and we all had a great time bonding over these ‘electronic-free’ game nights.
I recently attended Blogger Bash and KidzVuz in NYC and was gifted a big box of fun (you can see the un-boxing video here). Inside there were games and toys for children of all ages. I have to say that the toys that appealed to me were from Hasbro. They were not new toys but old standards.
Well, that is not really true because although Monopoly has been around for decades, this is a newer version and one that we fell in love with. Monopoly Here and Now is an updated version that is can be shorter in duration and has a few marked differences. No let me just say, that I don’t know if they have introduced these changes in another version but this one is new to me.
In Monopoly Here and Now you still get to collect properties and collect rent (when you land on the properties that you don’t own) but the difference lies in how you get to the finish line. In this version, you have four passports corresponding to each of the players. As you accumulate properties you must fill the two pockets in them. You do not accumulate the cards corresponding to the properties instead you acquire the individual discs. The discs are numbered one through twenty-two and the disc grow in diameter as you make your way around the board. The difference in disc size lets you fill the pockets in a variety of ways. So as you accumulate discs you can either use a lot of smaller discs or a few larger ones or a combination of both.
This version has some nice twists and turns. There are Here & Now play cards that you get to keep and they are secret and can be used anytime in the game to your advantage. To be sure, they were literally, game changers when we played them. Just when you thought you had built momentum and were a few plays away from winning, you lost your discs, lost your money or lost your advantage. All in one play. As a family we loved the pace of the game but we all admitted it could have gone on just a bit longer. We averaged 40 minutes per game from start to finish. This may seem long to you but both hubby and I recalled playing marathon games when we were kids. I still remember playing one boxing day for about 5 hours with my siblings when we lived in Montreal. Granted we were all older than kids but it did go on and on and on. It was great fun.
I had forgotten how much I love board games. I am an uber-competitive person by nature and it does not really matter that I am playing against my kids or my husband. I just love the whole thinking things through and figuring out what move to make. Who do you dupe, who do you help. I love the chase and the chasing. Its the chance of rolling the dice and hoping that you get the right count so that you can buy that one last property. Those are the familiar feelings that you got when you played traditional Monopoly. You just wanted to accumulate properties so that you could build your dynasty. Purchase houses and then hotels so that you could keep accumulating your wealth. This was no easy task and it took time to accumulate all those properties. That is why it took so long to play.
With Monopoly Here and Now, it is much quicker and the power is not held by one of two players but can be shared by a few. By being able to steal discs you can change the dynamic of the game quickly. In this version, you can only have four players: the Statue of Liberty, a Cowboy hat, a Baseball Glove and a trolley car. The properties are top American cities instead of street names. There is are not utilities or railroads. You have Here and Now and Chance game cards instead. The Chance cards are similar to those in the original game providing you opportunities for good and back luck to come your way.
All in all we had a great time playing and I think this will be one game that we play again.
The other game that the kids played was Jenga. Jenga is a wood stacking game where the objective is to pull pieces one by one and then stack them at the top to continue the game. As pieces are pulled out, the tower is more vulnerable and unstable. The game ends when someone makes a fatal mistake and pulls the wrong piece out making the tower fall. You have to strategize which piece comes must be pulled out. You are allowed to tap individual pieces to see if they come away easily but if you chose not to pick that piece, you much tap it back in to place. You may succeed or you may make the tower come tumbling down. It is so fun. As familiar as I was with this game, I was amazed to realize that we have never owned a set. You can imagine how pleased I was that I kept it from Blogger Bash. I remember debating whether I should take it home or leave it behind considering it was a heavy wooden toy. Should I bring it in my carry on or not? I’m glad I did.
I’m glad I had the opportunity to go to Blogger Bash in New York City this summer and discover some new and old family fun favourite games. These are ones that I’m sure will be around for a while. You don’t have to be a little kid to play board games. You just have to have fun.
Disclosure: I received Monopoly Here and Now and Jenga for the purpose of review. I received no other compensation. I am happy to do the review. All opinions are my own.
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We have both Monopoly & Jenga at our cottage. Family favourites that all generations can enjoy. I’m intrigued to try out the revised Monopoly. I think my oldest son would love it
Honestly, I was surprised how much we loved the NEW monopoly. When you are use to a classic game you almost don’t want to touch it but the improvements were great for younger kids.
We are big fans of Jenga. Love that game. Glad you had fun!
Yes the family games was fun. I think we’ll have to reinstated them here again.
I love playing Monopoly, I can’t wait until the kids are old enough to play. In the mean time we can start out with games like jenga to have fun family game nights.
This is so timely! We are headed away next weekend and I told the kids i wanted to pick up a new game. Now we have some great options!
Do it! The Here and Now version of Monopoly was fun.
I was just telling my husband I want to bring in a family game night. We fight hard during monoply to the point where I bought the version using the debit card system for now cheating haha!
Oh wow, that Monopoly game looks awesome! I’m on the fence about the game being shorter. On the one hand, I like the idea of not having to devote half the day to a game, but on the other hand, 4 hours of play with the fam was always fun, LOL.
Definitely need to find Monopoly Here and Now for our collection, thanks for the heads up! 🙂
I do think that if you want to keep it simple with younger kids Monopoly Here and Now works better. But as my 19 year old said, it could have been a tiny bit longer.