6 weirdest official Monopoly editions you can play for real
From Breaking Bad to bass fishing.
It feels like there’s an infinite number of Monopoly editions in the world. There aren’t, but researching for this article made it seem like there are. Regardless, there are a lot of editions of Monopoly - and buried amongst all the bog-standard Game of Thrones, Arsenal and Dungeons & Dragons editions are some real anomalies.
Certain official Monopoly editions are odd because of the property they’re based on, the concept behind them, the contents of the game itself or the fact that Hasbro executives believed there was an audience for them. Whilst we’ve never been the biggest fans of Monopoly, there are some versions and spin-off titles that we have found enjoyment in: such as Matt’s vocal love for the card game Monopoly Deal.
Weirdest Monopoly Editions
- Monopoly: Breaking Bad Edition
- Monopoly: Love Actually Edition
- Monopoly: Bass Fishing Edition
- Monopoly: Spongebob Squarepants Meme Edition
- Monopoly: HM Queen Elizabeth Edition
- Monopoly: D-Day
However, the versions of Monopoly featured on this list beg the question: was this necessary? If you own or know of any particularly strange official Monopoly editions then be sure to share them in the comments below. Otherwise, here are six of the weirdest official Monopoly editions you can actually play.
1. Monopoly: Breaking Bad Edition
Have fun in the “sordid underworld” of meth dealing
The morals behind the award-winning television series Breaking Bad are a little murky at times – with certain moments feeling like they glorify Walter White’s transformation from meek science teacher to anti-hero drug dealer. However, for those who have watched Breaking Bad, what happens to Walter by the end of the series’ finale isn’t good.
If you haven’t watched Breaking Bad, the tons of merchandise based on the popular series might make you question whether it's a show about a narcissist who sacrifices everyone else around him for the sake of his ego, or a wacky fun program about the hijinks of drug-dealing.
Monopoly: Breaking Bad Edition falls into this second category for a variety of reasons: perhaps the most obvious being the fact that players are invited to “experience the world of Walter White and Jesse Pickman”.
The game’s board features locations from the show, with players acquiring properties that have played host to numerous violent and horrendous events, such as Don Eladio’s Hacienda and Tuco’s Hideout. Another weirdly tone-death inclusion is a burnt teddy bear, which is a reference to a plane crash in which several people are killed – thanks, in part, to the actions of the main character. Such fun!
Buy Monopoly: Breaking Bad Edition from Amazon UK and Amazon US.
2. Monopoly: Love Actually Edition
Who wouldn’t want to buy the iconic location, The Airport?
The enduring legacy of Love Actually is baffling. It’s easily worse than fellow Richard Curtis and Hugh Grant movie collaborations Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, yet Love Actually continues to find its way into the Christmas lexicon every year. Entire essays could – and have – been written about its toxic portrayal of ‘romance’ and it might as well serve as a guidebook for entitled creeps everywhere.
Setting aside the shittiness of the property that Monopoly: Love Actually Edition is based on, it’s still clear that this is a very strange version of the classic board game. It’s possible that it’s the fault of the fact that it’s adapting a movie with very little memorable elements worth referencing, but the contents of the board game feel exceptionally generic and look incredibly low-quality.
The player tokens in Monopoly: Love Actually Edition are banal – why is there a CD player and a tambourine, for Christ’s sake? - and the box cover is astonishingly low-effort. However, nothing can prepare you for the baffling awfulness of its game board.
A major appeal of playing Monopoly is being able to own iconic locations and have the authority to charge your opponents rent to visit them. Nevertheless, I fail to see how anyone would be excited to own Monopoly: Love Actually Edition’s properties considering they’re called things like “The Airport” and “The Gallery”. The banal names are also attached to images that look like they could have been found on Shuttershock. Good luck falling in love with this board game.
Buy Monopoly: Love Actually Edition from Amazon UK and Amazon US.
3. Monopoly: Bass Fishing Edition
Are you angling for a good time?
You might be surprised to learn there are multiple editions of Monopoly themed around fishing. Possibly the strangest of these fishy editions is Monopoly: Bass Fishing Edition, namely because it is scratching such a specific itch within an already very specific itch. I am aware that bass fishing is a hobby – one that I’m sure many people enjoy – but is it really such a well-liked hobby that it needed its own edition of Monopoly celebrating it?
The box art of Monopoly: Bass Fishing Edition is definitely not leading anyone on. I'm no expert, but that there is a bass on the front cover. The many delights of this version of the family board game naturally include the opportunity to acquire a variety of different bass. However, the real thrills of Monopoly: Bass Fishing Edition can be found in the game’s board spaces, which contain such exciting things as “Rocks” and “Seaweed”.
Adding to the strangeness of the experience are the images featured on the game board, of which many are just glaring closeups of bass fish – their eyes staring with the dawning horror that the last moments of their lives will be memorialised on the board of a tabletop game most people will never even see.
Another weird element of Monopoly: Bass Fishing Edition is that players can still go to jail. Whatever arrestable offenses are these bass fishers doing? Are there, in fact, numerous illegal activities associated with bass fishing? Is the hobby an elaborate ruse to cover genuine, actual crimes? Monopoly: Bass Fishing Edition may have blown off the lid of one of the world’s greatest conspiracies and we’ve been in blind ignorance until now.
Buy Monopoly: Bass Fishing Edition from Ebay.
4. Monopoly: Spongebob Squarepants Meme Edition
Why publishers shouldn’t monetise internet culture
Just like Crocs and UMDs, memes are something so firmly stuck within a very limited time period – namely the 2010s – that they now feel extremely dated. People rarely refer back to specific memes and if they do, it’s usually within a fairly short period of time until another joke inevitably takes over the cultural zeitgeist. This is but one reason why the creation of Monopoly: Spongebob Squarepants Meme Edition is a bad thing.
Spongebob Squarepants Meme Edition has more than a whiff of ‘corporate coolness’ about it. The back-of-the-box blurb, with its use of terms such as “savage Patrick” and “all of the feels”, reeks of executives trying too hard to be ‘one of the kids’. Memes, something that began as a way for people to foster community via shared jokes, are commodified here – nothing more than another product for moneymakers to buy and sell. Honestly, Handsome Squidward deserves better than this.
When it comes to the licensed versions of Monopoly, even the strangest examples still feel like they fit into the world of commercialisation. However, the Spongebob Squarepants Meme Edition muddies the waters considering that – even though the imagery itself is owned by Nickelodeon – the jokes they’ve been used for have been created and shared by random people online: people who have presumably not been included in the licensing deal for this board game. In other words, this version of Monopoly should bring out anti-capitalist sentiments even more than the original game was intended to.
Buy Monopoly: Spongebob Squarepants Meme Edition from Walmart and Ebay.
5. Monopoly: HM Queen Elizabeth Edition
A fitting tribute to the ultimate landlord
Britain’s longest-reigning monarch has left an undeniable impact on the nation in many ways, but none more so than giving people the opportunity to sell as much tat as possible simply by slapping her face on it. Mugs, plates, pillow covers and Monopoly: HM Queen Elizabeth Edition: nothing moves random products quite like Her Maj. Despite releasing before her death last year, Monopoly: HM Queen Elizabeth Edition serves as a surprisingly fitting tribute to the woman, considering that she was arguably one of the most high-profile landlords on the planet.
As with many other editions of Monopoly with innocuous theming, the purchasable properties in the Queen Elizabeth edition represent various standout moments in her life. Highlights include her birth, the marriages of her grandchildren and, seemingly, the realisation of her own identity with a property space simply titled Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The most disappointing aspect of the game – despite its very existence – is the fact that its creators missed out on the perfect opportunity to educate players on exactly how much land and property the royal family owns.
Of course, there isn’t really much difference between Monopoly: HM Queen Elizabeth Edition and any standard version of the classic board game: even the tokens are exactly the same as you’d find in any normal edition. However, hilariously enough, you can just outright buy the United Kingdom and at a bargain price of only 200 Monopoly dollars! Which is probably an accurate estimate considering the state of the country post-Brexit.
Buy Monopoly: HM Queen Elizabeth Edition from Amazon UK and Amazon US.
6. Monopoly: D-Day
Borderline parody
A Monopoly: D-Day Edition feels like it should be a throwaway Simpsons joke, like something Grampa Simpson might have owned. But Monopoly: D-Day exists – it's a real edition of the board game that you can buy and play, right now. D-Day is an important historical event in which Allied troops first stepped onto the shores of Normandy, France, in the hopes of helping to defend the country against an aggressive invasion by Nazi Germany during World War II. This is considered the beginning of the battle to liberate France from occupation and destruction, a fight that would claim the lives of millions of civilians and soldiers; the Normandy landings alone would see thousands killed.
We’re obviously not against tabletop titles that take direct inspiration from historical battles or important events in the theatre of war. Some of the best World War II board games serve to educate and immerse players in historical events, such as the Undaunted series. However, tone is an important aspect to consider when covering certain historical subjects, especially those in which civilians lost their lives. A board game that has players charging each other rent on locations that were directly invaded and – in some cases – mostly destroyed feels incredibly inappropriate.
Monopoly: D-Day does nothing to engage players in the event of the Normandy landings, it only appropriates its imagery and language in an extremely shallow manner. There are more important things to be upset about at the moment than Monopoly: D-Day, but it’s undoubtedly baffling that someone thought this board game should be published.
Buy Monopoly: D-Day on Amazon UK.
If you do happen to pick up one of these bizarre copies, don't forget to remind yourself of the rules too with our primer on how to play Monopoly.