Monopoly Knockout Review

Hasbro is on a mission to “Ship of Theseus” Monopoly, replacing fundamental game mechanics with new ones while trying to retain its…Monopoly-ness. And believe us, we are 200% here for this experiment. Monopoly Knockout doesn’t just flip the script, it flips the table! There are no dice, only sliding tokens, paper money, and a loooooong board.

Each player (or two-player team) takes a set of four matching color tokens. From the ‘Go” area, slide your token across the board and try to land it on a given space. Curling! This is essentially Monopoly Curling. The tokens slide surprisingly well, and are quite well made. Make sure you have a table that is big enough though, or your board will have a hard time staying flat. Each player takes turns sliding one token at a time, trying to land in the most advantageous area. Land on a property and stay there to gain a payout at the end of a turn. The Railroad space is basically a “wild” property space. Chance lets you slide a token again. House doubles the payout of one property of your choice, and Luxury Tax requires you to pay into the Free Farking pool. Speaking of, whoever has the most tokens on the Free Parking zone at the end of the round takes the money. Careful though, Go to Jail spaces are nearby, and other players can knock you out! Going first isn’t always the best. Thankfully, turns rotate every completed round. After doing a round for each player, whoever collected the most money wins!

Monopoly Knockout is a much more dynamic, raucous game than the methodic, tactical game of Monopoly Classic. The familiar trimmings are still here, but the mechanics could not be any more different. Thankfully, these new mechanics are quite fun, and require a whole new skillset to succeed.