Monopoly: Star Wars Heroes vs. Villains is out today on consoles and PC. And I’ve played the game for nearly a dozen hours with others and by myself. I’m here to tell you that this is an above-average digital recreation of Monopoly, a very bad board game. It makes some smart changes to the formula, adding more skill and fun to the usual boring and lengthy experience many deal with when playing Hasbro’s original. But make sure you ban Chewbacca, or your matches will end quickly because he’s an overpowered bastard. The Wookiee is Star Wars Monopoly‘s Death Star.
I don’t think I’m saying anything controversial when I say Monopoly is a bad board game. It’s very luck-driven, losing takes forever, winning is a boring slog, and if you disagree, well, that’s likely because you are playing with some of the popular (but unofficial) house rules implemented over the decades to try to turn Monopoly into something better. Star Wars Monopoly, out now, understands this very well and adds quite a bit to the classic, bleh board game, including the memorable aesthetics, sounds, and characters of the Star Wars franchise.
Perhaps the biggest and best difference between Monopoly: Star Wars Heroes vs. Villains and regular Monopoly is the introduction of different character abilities. So, for example, if you choose Deedra Mero from the excellent Andor TV show, you’ll be able to buy properties like Naboo’s Theed Palace and Endor for half price. Other characters have more active abilities, like Luke Skywalker, who can temporarily send out his friend Wedge ahead of him to buy another property or collect some extra cash. All characters in Star Wars Monopoly are split between villains and heroes, and every character has a clone on the other side with the same abilities, even if they aren’t the same specific character. For example, Darth Vader can send a Stormtrooper out a few spaces, like Luke can send out Wedge.
Having different characters, some of whom you unlock via in-game challenges, with different passive and active skills immediately adds a lot more strategy to Monopoly. After a few matches, the group I played with started counter-picking and figuring out powerful metas. That leads me to the other big change in Star Wars Monopoly: This is a team game. You can play 2v2 or 3v3. Playing Monopoly in teams is a bit odd, but it does, once again, add more moments of strategy and communication to the dated board game.
You can fill in any and all openings during a match with AI players, who aren’t complete idiots, but aren’t much fun to play against. Playing Star Wars Monopoly solo was a very soul-draining experience, but this is true of playing any version of Monopoly solo. Still, I don’t recommend it. No amount of well-animated Star Wars cutscenes can overcome the sadness you’ll feel playing Monopoly alone.
The Chewbacca Problem
But I need to talk about Chewbacca, a character who became the bane of anyone doomed to challenge that damn Wookiee.
You see, the main way you win in Star Wars Monopoly isn’t, like the classic game, by forcing all the other players to go bankrupt or hope they give up from boredom and go watch TV. Instead, you win by collecting Influence Points. These are earned from buying locations and winning battles (yes, you can fight other players via dice rolls) and other activities you complete during the match. However, the most efficient way to get Influence Points is to speed around the board and hit the Go starting spot. This triggers a Go Event, which tasks your team with having to roll or avoid specific numbers. Succeed, and you’ll be given a ton of Influence Points. And after a combined eight loops around the board, the team with the most Influence Points wins. It’s a nice way to stop games from going on and on, but we often found games ended too soon and there’s no way to go beyond eight loops at the moment.
Chewbacca’s ability allows him to zip to the nearest enemy player on the board. And if you were to get ahead of the two enemy players on the board, well, Chewbacca doesn’t go backward. He only moves forward, meaning you can pass Go, complete an event, and then, assuming you are ahead of the other team, zip all the way around to their location, possibly passing Go again. This is annoying. I hate Chewbacca now.
Multiple times during matches, we had someone zip around the board twice in one turn. Matches would end so fast, and they often would win as we’d had so few turns to buy or roll. Combine Chewie with a character who gives him an extra die during fights, and every time he uses his ability, he becomes a battering ram able to take control of shared locations. Rolling big against Chewbacca wasn’t much fun because if he could get even one space ahead of you, he’d be able to whip around the board. And pray to the maker Chewie doesn’t roll doubles and get to go again. If that happens a few times, your entire match might be over before anyone has a chance to really spend any money.
It got so bad that we banned Chewie and Reva (the villain character who shares that same ability) so as not to let one team win over and over again. Go to Hell, Chewbacca, you game-breaking walking carpet.
Anyway, I’m sorry this impression blog about Star Wars Monopoly has evolved into me ranting about Chewbacca. But really, I don’t have much else to say that is interesting.
Monopoly: Star Wars Heroes vs. Villains isn’t an incredible game, but if you have a few friends, it’s a fun way to play a digital board game while enjoying some Star Wars shenanigans. I do wish the game had more options, like increasing how many trips around the board trigger an ending or a way to play outside of teams, but what’s here is a totally fine digital Monopoly experience that is boring to play solo, but a blast with some like-minded pals. Just ban Chewbacca to avoid having to watch that furry fuck zip around the board in seconds.
