Connect 4 meets Monopoly in upcoming board game Zillionaires On Mars
Remake of 2014 release The Game of 49.
Upcoming board game Zillionaires On Mars combines the four-in-a-row competition of Connect 4 with the property auctions of fellow family classic Monopoly.
A remake of The Game of 49, first released in 2014, Zillionaires On Mars follows the basic premise of Connect 4: the first person to claim four spots in a row wins. Here, each space on the game’s board represents a different real-estate lot on Mars in the year 2160.
Making things a little more complicated than the traditional disc-dropping kids’ game, however, is the addition of property auctions similar to those in Monopoly that also expand the two-player game to support up to five people during roughly half-hour sessions.
Players must use the cash in their possession - everyone starts with 49 zillion Martian dollars to spend, and can earn more from their existing properties when certain cards are drawn - to bid on a numbered space randomly drawn from the deck. Cards can also allow players the ability to choose which space they claim with a token.
The Game of 49 was originally created by Mark Corsey and self-published by the designer’s label Markee Games following a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2014, before seeing a wider release under publisher Breaking Games in 2016. In 2015, the game was Recommended by Mensa as part of the IQ organisation’s Mind Games event.
The upcoming re-release of the auction board game as Zillionaires On Mars comes via Big Potato, the UK-based maker of party games including The Chameleon and Obama Llama. The studio said that the game would be a “reskin” of The Game of 49, revamping its artwork to fit the futuristic Martian theme.
Zillionaires On Mars will be released in early October, with a UK RRP of £24.99. The box will include a little wooden gavel, which is cute.