A Real American Monopoly
By Ryan “Scramble” Costello, Jr

Critique parue dans la newsletter d'août 2009 de JoeCanuck.

GI Joe as a franchise has received less attention from Hasbro
and the masses than other 70s and 80s properties like Transformers and Star Wars. As collectors, we understand
that if the market just isn’t there, Hasbro and third party companies can not be expected to lose money venturing on
our account. So we have sat by as other intellectual properties were cross promoted, leaving us to wonder what it
would be like for our toyline to get the same treatment.
Thanks to the surge in attention GI Joe received this year from The Rise of Cobra, many of those speculations have
come true. One of them is a GI Joe Collector’s Edition of Monopoly.
The box art is perfect, with a throwback to the red explosion on the cardbacks, Skystrikers flying over the city in the
Monopoly logo. Flint, Scarlett, and JUMP equipped Duke on one side of the box, Cobra Commander, Destro, and the
Baroness accompanied by a Fang helicopter and a Cobra sigil on the other. The game board is just as nice, with hooded
Cobra Commander terrorizing the board a snake sword, his forces to his left, the Joes on his right. A lot of artwork fit
into a small space without feeling crowded or unnecessary.
Even with the 25th anniversary figures bringing back the vintage art, it is still a thrill to see it all in one place.
The fun part of the Collector’s Editions of Monopoly is how the game adapts the franchise. Star Wars Monopoly has each colour set of
properties a different planet and each property within the set a famous location from a Star Wars movie. The tokens are based on the characters,
houses and hotels are specially molded starships. Marvel Monopoly has the players buying famous issues of Marvel comics using tokens based
on Marvel Super Heroes, while in the Spiderman game players don’t buy property, they capture villains using a variety of tokens from Peter
Parker to the Spider Buggy. GI Joe boasting such a large cast of characters and with such a wide variety of iconic vehicles, surely it is obvious
how to adapt the game.
GI Joe Monopoly makes some strange choices. Comic fans will be sad to know that the game is almost exclusively based on the Sunbow
animated series. The properties are famous locations from the cartoon. The problem being that locations are not what the cartoon was known for
and it is impressive that the designers managed to scrounge up enough unique locales to fill the board. There are only six tokens instead of
standard Monopoly’s eight, and they are a mishmash of pieces sort of GI Joe themed: Timber; Duke’s dog tags; the USS Flagg; a cobra; Cobra
Commander’s helmet; and the Thunder Machine. The railroads are all vehicles: the HISS, the Rattler, the Slugger, and the Snowcat. What
motivated these choices is not clear at all, but the designers maximized the potential of these illogical ideas.
The game pieces may seem to have been picked at random from a top hat, but the level of detail is impressive. How do we know the dog tags are
Duke’s specifically? Because Hauser, Conrad S. “Duke” is embossed on them. The USS Flagg has its trademark 99 on the deck. The strangest
choice of token, the Thunder Machine, is a complex design that the game piece manages to capture perfectly. There is almost a theme to the
pieces. Timber could be GI Joe’s answer to standard Monopoly’s dog. The Thunder Machine could be the car. Stretching a little, Cobra
Commander’s helmet could be the thimble and the Flagg could be the cannon. But that leaves the dog tags and the snake, implying that the other
similarities may just be coincidental.
Basing the properties on “famous” locations from the cartoon just seems like a bad idea from end to end. After all, who knows what The Snake
Club even is? Well if you’re curious, the back of the deed explains the Snake Club is “a Cobra-run nightclub filled with nefarious clientele. The
house entertainment is led by the popular lounge act, Satin and Her Dolls.” Every deed nicely recaps the significance of the property, bringing the game to life. Plus, who can’t appreciate the Broadcast Energy Transmitter and Cobra Television Network as the utilities?
At this point, the heart of GI Joe –the characters- seems severely underrepresented.
Abstract tokens, locations for properties, is the closest thing to a GI Joe character in the game Timber? Not exactly. Although they do not play a prominent role in the rules, each property is accompanied by artwork of a Joe or Cobra. This artwork is taken from the card art so fans that don’t care for the cartoon can enjoy a toyaccurate Lady Jaye in baseball cap and Wild Bill in green. Additionally, players can choose to remember property based on the character rather than the name, so they don’t buy Extensive Enterprises, they buy Tomax and Xamot. It helps that no character appears twice around the board, although this strangely means the only Snake Eyes is irradiated and the only Baroness is in scuba gear.

Typically the difference between Collector’s Editions of Monopoly and the standard game are skin deep, with the same rules, the same values
assigned to the properties, cards with the same effects, etc. This is not the case. GI Joe Monopoly features four optional rules. The first is called
Snake Eyes. When double ones are rolled, instead of moving two spaces the player can ninja whisk his character to any other location on the
board. The other three optional rules have common ground: The MASS Device, the Weather Dominator, and the Pyramid of Darkness. These
three optional rules recreate the plot of the first three GI Joe animated mini-series. For example, if one player controls the Sea of Ice, the Heavy Water Pool, and the Ring of Fire (the three locations of the rare elements from the original mini-series) then that player controls the MASS device and can teleport an opponent anywhere on the board once in the game. The Weather Dominator returns an owned property to the bank, and the Pyramid of Darkness allows a player to ignore the effects of a space it lands on, such as going to jail or paying the rent on the Terrordrome with a Defense System (hotel). More than just fun references to the animated series, these optional rules change the dynamics of the game without ruining balance. If one player owns the Island of No Return and the Roof of the World, the other players know that not only is that player the Aztec Palace of Doom away from a monopoly, she is one property short of the Weather Dominator.
Additionally, it’s fun on a meta level to have one player use the Weather Dominator to ruin another player’s MASS device.

There are some details that could have been improved upon. Houses and hotels are howitzers and defense systems. This is in name alone as they
still use the standard Monopoly house and hotel pieces, taking away from the game’s immersion. Given that, they could have been named more
appropriately, like FLAK and Tactical Battle Platform. Chance and Community Chest are “Yo Joe!” and “Cobra!” which feels like the cards
should be from the point of view of the battle cry. Destro escaping should be a bad thing if it were a Yo Joe! card (costing the player money) but
a good thing if it were a Cobra! card (earning the player money). Instead they are used interchangeably, with odd fits like the Cobra! Get Out of
Jail Free card “Teach kids the dangers of electrical wires. Now they know… and knowing is half the battle.”
My first instinct would have been to have the characters as property, vehicles as tokens, and base the game around recruiting soldiers for your
army. Instead of that generic GI Joe Monopoly concept, this game focuses on the cartoon, deeply exploring this single aspect of the franchise
and packing in references and callbacks throughout. There is a clear knowledge of the subject matter and a feeling of respect and love. The
additional rules make this stand out even more. If your GI Joe is more military realism than military fantasy, you are not going to want to spend
$50 on this game. If you are a fan of the Sunbow GI Joe animated series, the GI Joe Collector’s Edition of Monopoly will make you feel like you
got home after school just in time to hear that “GI Joe is there!”