Board Game Review: ‘Monopoly Scrabble’ from Winning Moves

Monopoly Scrabble from Winning Moves Games brings together two of the most famous American board games to make something new that resolves luck-issue mechanics. Monopoly has sold more than 275 million copies over its long career as the best-selling board game of all time. Scrabble is nearly as famous, with versions of the word-building game in more than 30 languages across 121 countries. Although the two are very distinct, one using money and group-collecting and the other letter-arrangement, these differences make for a clever, multi-tiered mashup game where players need to have a strong vocabulary as well as careful planning to land in the perfect space.

First Making Words

Monopoly Scrabble begins with each player receiving a rack of letter tiles and some cash. Players take turns first making words from two or more of the letters on their rack, building the board just like in Scrabble. In a pinch, or when an opportunity makes itself evident, they may also buy letters from a pre-drawn rack at the Bank. This modification to the standard Scrabble mechanic allows players to add to their letters, making for much more engagement rather than being stuck with a bad draw.

Then Claiming Property

The word a player makes in Monopoly Scrabble decides the rest of their turn in the “Monopoly” phase. If the word is spelled out over a property color group square, the player claims that property. With multiple squares for each of the properties, players have the chance to steal. This property-grabbing mechanic speeds up the game and makes things more delightfully chaotic, as opposed when properties are locked up except for a few trades or desperate sales as in the regular Monopoly game.

Moving and Grooving

A player’s movement around the board is determined by their word score from what they placed. Players now have the opportunity to decide where they could land, as opposed to the normal Monopoly with random dice rolling. Players will want to count ahead to ensure that they do not land on property controlled by an opponent and have to pay expensive rent. Instead, they should aim for some cash from Free Parking or try their luck getting free property with Community Chest or Chance. Clever players will aim for Triple Word Score squares that will take them around the board quickly to pass Go and collect a hefty chunk of change.

Ending the Game

Monopoly is famously a grind, but Monopoly Scrabble wraps up fairly quickly with the game ending after the last available tile is played. This makes the game overall take less than an hour, depending on how long players take choosing their words. With the dual aspect of the word score determining where their piece will next land, players will have to think not just of the biggest possible word but the best possible one to make just the right score and win big.