Combining two big-name games of two different genres into one, MONOPOLY Solitaire: Card Games is a hybrid online mobile game with both board game and card game mechanics. It is provided by Mobility Ware with the consent and collaboration of Hasbro, the owner of the classic Monopoly game. Although this game suggests a “card game” feature in its title, quintessentially, it is a board game in functioning with the in-game solitaire as its progress engine. In other words, the ultimate goal and victory defining factor is for players to achieve the specific objectives given in the board game section. Namely, players need to win the Monopoly game to win the entire game in the end. The built-in solitaire card game is not the aim of the whole gameplay, yet its result greatly carries forward or drags down the board game progress. To be specific, when players start MONOPOLY Solitaire: Card Games, they are on an unusual gaming interface. The Monopoly board game is placed on top of the gaming platform while the solitaire game is organized below. The rule and gameplay for both two sections are basically the same as if players are participating in separate games. However, instead of rolling a dice to make legitimate moves on the game board, players now need to solve solitaire puzzles and win certain numbers which will serve as the dice-rolling result for the moves in Monopoly. Therefore, players follow a regular solitaire game rule to arrange the cards in the seven columns in correct order and move them to four foundations. What’s more, when players place cards in an appropriate sequence, they would also win silver coins with which they can purchase properties that in turn generates revenues and rents as gold assets. This is the winning accumulation for the board game. As for the board game section, the rule totally resembles that of a classic and conventional Monopoly game. Players use the solitaire game result as a numerical token to replace the dice-rolling results. For this section of gaming, it is luck-based. Players can locate in any box on the board with randomly different results. If they move to an un-owned property box, they can buy that property with the silver coin earned in the solitaire; if it is an owned-property, then players arrive to collect rent/gold. Other results are also included just like in a regular monopoly game, such as tax, chance and jails. In short, the whole game pace and length can be either fast/short or slow/long, depending on the skills in solitaire and the luck in monopoly. 

Game Review

This dream-come-true collaboration of two classic games connect fans of both games together. As a result of the large fan base of these two games, MONOPOLY Solitaire: Card Games has seen a large number of downloads since its release. This game might seem a bit weird in terms of interface and game progress mechanism, yet it cleverly connects the game rules of two and waves them into one coherent gameplay. At first, it might concerns players that merging two games into one may extend the length of each game session. However, this game is essentially functioning as a board game whose winning factor is luck-based which means the game could either be short or long randomly. The combination of two different types of games well incorporates strategy and luck elements, which enhances the playability of this new and old game.