Games Better Than Monopoly – and You’ll Actually Want to Play

If I were to take a quick informal poll of houses in America and ask what board games that they own. I am quite certain that Monopoly would likely show up on over 90% of the lists. It’s not that Monopoly is such a great game that everyone should own, it’s almost as if it’s out of habit that people end up grabbing it off the store shelf when they want to give a board game as a gift. (Does anyone buy Monopoly for themselves?) There are a lot of choices of games better than Monopoly. Frankly what I remember most about Monopoly is that the games were excruciatingly long, heavily lop-sided, and often ended up with the board flip over and some generally hacked off players.

However, I acknowledge that Monopoly is vastly popular and there are some certain qualities that do make it stand out. It’s the execution of those qualities that I have a problem with. So let us look at some of the basic reasons why Monopoly is popular, and see if they show up in other games with better execution. Keep in mind that the game listed aren’t Monopoly clones, and some may and will look very different than the Monopoly you know. Still, others will be a bit more obvious to see the connection.

Cash Is King.

Monopoly is about cash. Despite all the properties, hotels, and railroads – it’s cash that determines the winner. While passing “Go” does allow you to collect $200 from the bank, as the game progresses much of your wealth comes at the expense of other players. Monopoly has a terrible, as in non-existent, catch up mechanism. Meaning if you fall behind early – you are very likely to be behind for the entire game until you are ultimately defeated. That can be a real downer and unappealing for a lot of players.

I don’t mind a game where cash is the “scorecard”, but I’d like to see some ability to come from behind if I’m hampered early on. A few bad die rolls or card draws early, shouldn’t be a reason to suffer for the duration of the game. Whether thru skill or sheer luck, I’m always looking for games that allow me to “have a chance” for the duration of the game. For gamers that like to collect cash and win with wealth, check out a few of these titles.

Power Grid

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Of the games on this list, this one is the most complex. But those that stick with it and accept the learning curve will enjoy a great economic driven game. Power Grid is all about using your cash, aka elecktro, to build a network of powered cities. You have to balance spending money on new power plants, gathering resources to fuel said power plants, and then using that generated electricity to power cities. When you supply power to cities – you get paid. And the cycle continues.

The gameplay is broken out into different parts, and depending on how well you are doing in the score, determines when you get to take your action. For instance, the player with the most powered cities will get to bid first on the power plant auction. The player falling behind will get the first crack at purchasing resources when they are the most affordable. That player who got to have the first crack at the shiny new power plants – will now also have to purchase resources when they are the most expensive.

It is not a hard game to learn, but it is a hard game to win. I would only recommend this game to someone who already really likes board games. It is not an intro game. But for those that like board games – they will likely really enjoy this board game classic. Powergrid is a game better than Monopoly in a lot of ways – it just takes a little time to learn.

Greed

I should offer a caution here – Don’t pick up Greed as a family game. The setting/theme mimics that of the mob or street gangs. As such, I’d rate some of the cards as PG. Some cards may depict gangs, violence, and other “PG” or higher related tones. Still – it is a very fun and quick game for the right crowd.

Greed is a little tougher to find nowadays, but it is also a bit cheaper than when it first came out.

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Real Estate Mogul

Ahh, the fun of building up your houses and hotels and seeing your real estate empire on the board can be very satisfying. Certainly one of the more satisfying aspects of Monopoly has got to be placing those expensive hotels. Further, you reap the benefits of your real estate empire each time some unfortunate soul ends up on your space. When someone lands on your Boardwalk space that has a hotel – well it is like winning the board game lottery. There are other games that give you a feeling of constructing an empire and reaping the benefits.

Lords of Vegas

For many Lords of Vegas is the “new Monopoly.” This game is the closest to the game of Monopoly I am featuring on the list. Swapping our Atlantic City for Las Vegas, Lords of Vegas brings you to the Las Vegas Strip where you will be taking parking lots and turning them into casinos.

Featuring a glorious board, plenty of dice rolling and the option to trade resources, opponents are constantly strategizing to be the Vegas kingpin. Each turn starts out with casinos paying out to the players based on the luck of the draw. It is a bit like hitting 7-7-7 on a slot machine. Next, casinos of the same color as the color of the card drawn will be scored based on their size. From there players have any number of actions ranging from building new casinos – to initiating a hostile take over via a roll of the dice. That is just a small taste of the different actions you can take in this game. There are so many things you can do and just doing them is a lot of fun. You can do as many things as you want in Vegas – as long as you have the money of course. There are a lot of ways you can interact and try to ‘muscle out’ other players. You can expand your casino and move in on other player’s hard-earned properties. You can even take over other players’ casinos and force them to reroll their dice affecting how they get paid later! 

The game does a great job of incorporating a Vegas feel into the game. Between all the dice rolling, the flashy board, and even the ability to risk your money in the game – the theme really shines through. Most of all Lords of Vegas brings something to the table that I never felt Monopoly did – the ability to make meaningful decisions each turn. This decision making factor is what makes Lords of Vegas one of the games better than Monopoly. But it will take more than just smart decisions to win the game – just like in Vegas if you’re going to win big, you’re going to have to take some chances.

Machi Koro –

Machi Koro is a dice rolling game that takes the best parts of Monopoly, taking a 4-5 hour game, and condensing it to 30-45 minutes of fun. Instead of the role of a millionaire tycoon like in Monopoly, you take on the role of the city mayor seeking to raise the fortunes of your town. As much as your fate in Monopoly depending on where your die roll placed you on the board, the die roll in Machi Koro has an equally important part. Depending on the die roll, various buildings will pay an income to you – sound familiar? (house/hotels?) Most of the time these building payments come from via the bank – but there are times when that payment comes from the other players. (That does sound familiar!).

By and large you are building a city engine, where the more buildings you have, the more money you are earning. The more money you earn, the more buildings you can build. It truly embraces the “it takes money to make money” axiom. Though its always a little sweeter when that money comes from the other players. The endgame consists of being the first player to build 4 landmarks in their city. A cute artsy little game that puts the fun back in real estate planning.

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Negotiation – “The Art of the Deal”

I don’t generally like to quote Donald Trump, but I do like the sentiment. Negotiation plays a big part in Monopoly. The gameplay doesn’t all have to be just about rolling the dice and see what happens. There is no luck in negotiation. Your reward will be determined by how well you can seal a deal. The rules in Monopoly are pretty lite on what you can and can’t do as far as negotiating in Monopoly. You can have short or long term deals. Real estate trades, rent-free passage, or whatever else you think might benefit your own personal goals is something you can offer up in your deals. This one to one manipulation, I mean interaction *smirk*, may really appeal to some players. Players may discover they have talents they didn’t realize they had at all. Negotiation may be one of the great appeals in Monopoly, but these games are better than Monopoly in how they execute it.

Catan

When you are the active player you can trade with the bank but often you can get better deals by negotiating with the other players. Like Monopoly, you can attempt to set the terms of the deal. You will try and get what you want, giving something or things to another player, while still trying to hold the better end of the deal.

Bohnanza

I admit this game is probably the least like Monopoly on this list. There is no board, no properties to auction, no hotels to build. What it has instead are beans. Yes, beans – all kinds of beans – stink beans, blue beans, garden beans, and of course green beans to name a few. Some beans are “worth” more than others – and that is how you win the game. Plant and harvest the most valuable beans. Bohnanza is played with a hand of cards you draw. Unlike in most other card games, you can’t rearrange the order of cards in hand, so you must use them in the order that you’ve picked them up from the deck — unless you can trade them to other players, which is the heart of the game.

You can negotiate trades with your other bean farmers to grow the crops you already have – or expand into more lucrative opportunities. Collect and harvest enough beans, and you can plant a third field and move to more scoring chances. The best players will negotiate a good deal for themselves and offload the beans they don’t need. You can even make future promises for cards you are trading for and away! Don’t be too stubborn though – you can only play through the draw deck a few times before the game ends. The player who has collected the most coins via harvesting wins.

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All in the Family

For a lot of people, Monopoly isn’t fun because of any of the above factors I’ve pointed it. It’s fun because it is their go to family game. Put another way – the fun isn’t coming from the game – it is coming from the act of playing a game. I am here to show you that there are plenty of other family games that just aren’t as cutthroat as Monopoly, but can still offer that sense of besting someone. It can be done without the end result of having the game flipped over and the pieces scattered about. I’ve got siblings, and I won’t deny that crushing your brothers or sisters in a game is somewhat satisfying at times. That said – there is a good way and a bad way to go about it. I mean if you are going to get pummeled, you might as well have some fun at the same time.

My City

If you are a family that is routinely pulling a game off the shelf – then My City is the one for you. My City is what is known as a legacy game. For those not in the know, a legacy game is a game that develops and changes each time you play it. The game becomes much more of an evolving story as opposed to a single game played. As you play a series of games you may make changes to the board, cards, or other items each time you play the game, making the game uniquely yours.

I hate to give too much away in legacy format games because so much of the fun is unlocking the hidden surprises that legacy games are known for. Without giving away too much I will say that you will use Tetris-like pieces to build your cities. As the game progresses there will be different scoring objectives you are attempting to achieve. In between each game the game rules slightly change mostly done by some form of sticker application on the playing cards. The game has a nice flow to it and actually lacks quite a bit of the “take that” discussion we’ve talked about. The first game is extremely simple and easy to learn, but as the chapters progress you are slowly adding more complexity to the game. The changes are all bite size though, so it never feels like you are overburdened with new rules.

Unfair

If by chance you’ve played the hit video game Roller Coaster Tycoon (or it’s squeals) this game is going to be for you. In fact I’d venture to say if you’ve ever been to an amusement park – you’ll get a kick out of this game. You won’t be building hotels like in Monopoly or casinos like in Lords of Vegas – instead you will be building an epic amusement park. At the same time you’ll be looking to stop others from building a competing park, leaving the spoils of the game to you. Over the course of several turns, players build attractions such as rides, food places, sideshows and theaters, attempting to attract the most visitors, and earn the most money. Players will hire workers that do special things, all the while staving off rival amusement park operators and their subversive plans. Rides can even be sabotaged or closed by the weather. It can all get a bit crazy, but it’s highly competitive fun that doesn’t take too long to play

Contrast that to the second half of the deck holding “Unfair” cards which, as advertised, throw the proverbial wrench into your plans. After the city event has been resolved the players will play their own event cards. Each event card has a “nice” option and a “mean” option. The “nice” option will certainly help the player who is playing it while the “mean” option – well you get the idea by now.

The game is played via a deck of cards over a course of rounds. Each round starts with the players drawing an event card and then an event card being revealed from the city. The city’s event cards serve as the game’s internal timer. They also impact the game differently as the game progresses. The first half of the city event deck are “Funfair” cards where the consequences are never negative. Contrast that to the second half of the deck holding “Unfair” cards which, as advertised, throw the proverbial wrench into your plans. After the city event has been resolved the players will play their own event cards. Each event card has a “nice” option and a “mean” option. The “nice” option will certainly help the player who is playing it while the “mean” option – well you get the idea by now.

If you like that style of a “take-that” type of game – this is one you want to pick up. It manages to pull of this tricky mechanic without totally pissing off the person on the receiving end. I suppose partly because of what comes around goes around. It is a game that is highly engaging and features lots of player interaction.

Conclusion

Listen, I know Monopoly is near and dear to a lot of people. If you really like Monopoly then by all means – play Monopoly. Frankly Monopoly may have the most rethemed versions I’ve ever seen in a board game. Here are a ton of choices of rethemed or Monopoly clones.

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What I would suggest however is that there are several other board games that share some of the same qualities that have appeal to Monopoly players. I’ve stumbled across a couple of YouTubers who occasionally put out a dedicated segment about going Beyond Monopoly into other games. If you are looking for some other great suggestions – give them a look.