Monopoly Junior
Kid-sized classic adds creativity, loses strategy.
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Monopoly Junior
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this app.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Monopoly Junior is a kid-friendly version of the classic Monopoly board game. It's single-player only, and kids work with the computer characters to buy all the properties without anyone going bankrupt first. Much of the strategy is stripped away, but young kids may still struggle to understand what's happening. Reading isn't required, but may be useful, and some fine motor skills will help with dragging money to pay for things or take payment. There's a link the publisher's other games on the main screen which requires entering a birth year as a parent gate. Read the developer's privacy policy for details on how your (or your kids') information is collected, used, and shared and any choices you may have in the matter, and note that privacy policies and terms of service frequently change.
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What’s It About?
MONOPOLY JUNIOR has a lot of elements Monopoly fans would expect: spaces to purchase, jail, chance cards, and bonuses for passing Go. Kids can purchase fun spaces like an aquarium, bakery, go-karts, and roller coaster. When kids land on a space, they automatically purchase it. They do, however, get to choose/design a product to sell on their space. They can decorate the cars, or choose ice cream flavors, for example. If they land on a space purchased by a computer player, they pay accordingly for the product on that space. Or they can collect if someone lands on their spaces. They even earn double if they own side-by-side spaces. All of the bank transactions are shown on screen and kids help "transfer" the money in or out of their account by dragging it on screen. The goal is for the characters to work together to buy all of the spaces on the board without running out of money. Kids can't see the other players' turns unless someone lands on one of their spaces, so there's no waiting involved.
Is It Any Good?
This kid-sized version adds more creativity and reduces the competitive vibe of the original, but it also loses any sense of strategy. Monopoly Junior offers some fun features for introducing kids to the franchise, the best of which is probably the ability to customize the products sold on your spaces. It's simple, but cute. It's also a fast-moving game without a lot of waiting and competition -- two things that young kids notoriously don't handle well. Unfortunately, they also deny kids the option to make any purchasing decisions. If you land on a space, you buy it, whether you can afford to or not. In doing so, they not only turned it into an entirely luck-based game, but removed the opportunity for kids to learn the basic skills that would allow them to move on to the full version. And instead of kids starting to understand that they might wait to purchase something until they have the cash to do so, they simply keep buying until they run out of money and have to restart the game. There's some math involved as kids help count cash for sales, but double-digit addition and subtraction might be too advanced for the target audience. The other drawback is a lack of multi-player. Sure, it's nice to not always have to sit through someone else's turn, but it's confusing to find out that various spaces on the board have been claimed when you weren't looking. So while Monopoly Junior has some entertainment value, it misses the mark by leaving out some key elements of the more mature version of Monopoly.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about money and finances while using Monopoly Junior. If kids receive allowance, work with them to practice saving for things they want. What are your family expectations around saving, donating, and spending?
Talk about the spaces that are available for purchase in Monopoly Junior. Which ones are your favorites? Can you design your own version? What spaces would you have?
How do you like this app in comparison with other apps you could play? As you balance your time on- and offscreen, would this be an app you'd choose to use? Why or why not?
App Details
- Devices: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android
- Subjects: Math: addition, counting, subtraction
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Release date: September 8, 2020
- Category: Board Games
- Topics: Cats, Dogs, and Mice, Horses and Farm Animals, Numbers and Letters
- Publisher: PlayDate Digital Inc.
- Version: 1.1
- Minimum software requirements: iOS 10.0 or later; Android 4.4 and up
- Last updated: April 19, 2021
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