Monopoly (game) - Variants

Variants

Because Monopoly evolved in the public domain before its commercialization, Monopoly has seen many variant games. Most of these are exact copies of the Monopoly games with the street names replaced with locales from a particular town, university, or fictional place. National boards have been released as well. Over the years, many specialty Monopoly editions, licensed by Parker Brothers/Hasbro, and produced by them, or their licensees (including USAopoly and Winning Moves Games) have been sold to local and national markets worldwide. Two well known "families" of -opoly like games, without licenses from Parker Brothers/Hasbro, have also been produced.

Several published games are similar to Monopoly. These include:

• Anti-Monopoly, one of several games that are a sort of monopoly backwards. The name of this game led to legal action between Anti-Monopoly's creator, Ralph Anspach, and the owners of Monopoly.
• Blue Marble Game, a Korean game based on monopoly created in 1982.
• Business, a Monopoly-like game not associated with Hasbro. In this version the "properties" to be bought are cities of India; Chance and Community Chest reference lists of results printed in the center of the board, keyed to the dice roll; and money is represented by counters, not paper.
• Chômageopoly, "Unemployment Monopoly", a board game created by the Lip factory in the 1970s.
• Dallasopoly, a version replacing properties with various locations in Dallas, Texas. Sold by the Dallas Arboretum (which is one of the properties one can buy).
• Dinosauropoly, a version using prehistoric motifs and rules.
• Dostihy a sázky, a variant sold in Czechoslovakia. This game comes from the totalitarian communist era (1948–1989), when private businesses were forbidden and mortgages didn't exist, so the monopoly theme was changed to a horse racing theme.
• Easy Money, published by Milton Bradley, also in the 1930s.
• El Estanciero, an Argentinian boardgame with the same basic mechanics, although the board is six-sided and the properties are Argentinian provinces. The name means "the rancher" in Spanish.
• Eurobusiness, a 1980s Polish game based on Monopoly, where players buy European cities, and create sets by collecting all cities in a certain country.
• Fast Food Franchise is a board game by TimJim games, which shares Monopoly's core mechanics, but through careful design guarantees it will actually end.
• Federal Reserve Monopoly, created by Goldstein, Patrick, & Speeduh in 2009, mocks the money-as-debt monetary system and incorporates many of the financial instruments that caused the 2008 Wall Street crash, like "Credit Default Swap" and "Purchase Options".
• Finance, first marketed in 1932 by Knapp Electric, and later by Parker Brothers.
• Finans (and Nya Finans), a Scandinavian board game from 1949 which adds stocks and bonds to the basic Monopoly-style property trading.
• Ghettopoly, released in 2003, caused considerable offense upon its release. The game, intended to be a humorous rendering of ghetto life, was decried as racist for its unflinching use of racial stereotypes. Hasbro sought and received an injunction against Ghettopoly's designer.
• Go For Broke, the exact opposite of Monopoly, has the players trying to spend all their money before anyone else. Bad bets at the casino, real estate, stock market, race track, and giving to the poor house lowers your account balance. This was a Milton Bradley game originally published in the mid-1960s.
• Grandopoly, a Monopoly version that is themed around the Grand Hotel of Mackinac Island, Michigan in which different rooms serve as the various properties.
• Greekopoly, a college-themed version using fraternities and sororities as properties.
• Itadaki Street, a series of board games for video game consoles from Enix with special guest characters from the Final Fantasy and Mario franchises.
• Kissopoly is a KISS-themed version of the game where players buy songs in the band's catalog as well as various merchandise in the place of properties. The game also uses gold and platinum records in the place of hotels and houses. Game play is no different than standard Monopoly.
• København – a spin-off themed after Copenhagen, Denmark.
• La gran Capital, published by several Chilean factories, is a Chilean version of the game, with neighborhoods from Santiago de Chile. The title means "the big capital", other versions are even named "Metropolis".
• Make Your Own -OPOLY: This game allows you to customize the board, money, and rules to your liking.
• Matador – a Danish variant in which the board is shaped as circle and with some minor variations in the rules and design of the game.
• Millionaire's Game – a variant of the game used in the Philippines created by Mabuhay Boardgames.
• My Monopoly.
• NFL Version – Where properties are NFL teams (order based on results of that season, with the Denver Broncos being the most expensive property) and the dice are shaped like footballs.
• Nintendo Version – All of the characters from the video game company are properties in this version including Mario and Luigi as the most expensive, as well as vehicles like the go-kart from the Mario Kart series. The Chance and Community Chest Cards are replaced with the Block Cards, and the tokens are items from various franchises like the Koopa Troopa Shell and the Master Sword.
• Petropolis, a copy of Monopoly based in buying into the oil industry, using oilfields. The game uses 'telex messages' instead of Chance cards and the playing board snakes round into the middle before continuing round the edge.
• Poleconomy, a board game designed in New Zealand incorporating real-world companies as well as political and economic strategy.
• Potopoly, A marijuana-themed version, using a five-sided board, and bags instead of houses.
• Saidina, a Malaysia localized version.
• Solarquest, a popular space-age adaptation, was released by Golden in 1986.
• SpongeBob SquarePants Edition by Hasbro, featuring characters and places in Bikini Bottom from the hit Nickelodeon animated comedy series created by Stephen Hillenburg.
• Strictly Pittsburgh, a variant based on the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In addition to properties being replaced with local Pittsburgh sites and businesses, it contained a somewhat different board layout and replaced houses and hotels with skyscrapers.
• The Farming Game is a board game in which the goal is to run a financially successful farm, and like Monopoly the heart of the game is economics. The game's website draws comparisons to Monopoly.
• The Mad Magazine Game, a Mad Magazine themed board game in which the object of the game is for player to lose all their money, play is counter-clockwise, and the dice must be rolled with the left hand. Released by Parker Brothers in 1979.
• Totopoly, created by Waddingtons in 1938, is based on horse racing.
• Turista, a Mexican copy of Monopoly made by Montecarlo board game manufacturer. It is based in buying Mexican States. In each state it is possible to build gas stations and hotel to increase the rent amount.