Sailor Moon Monopoly game review

Sailor Moon Monopoly - Board

The Sailor Moon Monopoly game is now out in stores and online. I got my copy from an EB Games store in Ottawa (the Canadian equivalent to GameStop) a while back and it seems like many fans have done the same. With the game in hand we can get a good look at exactly what’s going on with the various pieces! As we’d discussed earlier this seems to be Sailor Moon S the game for reasons which I can’t really fathom. The various characters are mostly all from Sailor Moon S, mainly the villains being the Witches 5, Professor Tomoe and Mistress 9 as well as the inclusion of all Sailor Guardians including Sailor Moon S’s new additional Sailor Uranus, Neptune and Saturn. With the Viz video releases now having reached the end of Sailor Moon SuperS this seems an odd way to do it. Perhaps the game was simply in development for too long or this may have been an intentional choice as many of the Sailor Guardians introduced in this season would not appear in Sailor Moon SuperS and a Sailor Moon Sailor Stars Monopoly game would not be as recognisable to fans. For whatever the reasons, it’s Sailor Moon S Monopoly!

As with many other versions of Monopoly this really is the same old game we’ve seen time and time again with a different esthetic. This was immediately obvious to me as I’ve played countless hours of the game in my youth and I even spent quite some time programming a Monopoly computer game in Turbo Pascal when I was a child (the game mostly worked well but lacked houses, hotels, Chance and Community Chest cards). This is good for purists who want to have the same game experience as normal Monopoly. One thing which I think is fairly odd however is the completely random grouping of characters for most of the properties. Allow me to rant a bit about each one.

Sailor Moon Monopoly - Mortgaged Properties

First we have Luna and Artemis, as a single property, bundled with Mimette of the Witches 5. Wouldn’t it have been easier to just use this, one of the only two pairs of properties, as Luna and Artemis? Mimette does not fit with Luna and Artemis at all. The characters don’t ever actually interact.

Next we have Eudial, Viluy and Tellu. This actually works! They are 3 of the Witches 5 and since there are no sets of five properties (most are groups of three) this sort of works!

Then there’s Cyprene/Ptilol with Kaolinite and … Sailor Chibi Moon! Kaolinite does have a brief interaction with Chibiusa at some point and the two characters do show up together in succession in the later versions of the Sailor Moon S credits. Cyprene and Ptilol fit only with Kaolinite. It would have made more sense to have put Mimette with her fellow Witches and then put Chibiusa with either her parents or maybe with Sailor Saturn!

Next is Sailor Mercury, Mars and Jupiter. There are all Sailor Guardians so this works decently. Aside from Sailor Moon they do spend some time together before Sailor Venus joins the show so I’ll say this is one of the three less terrible one.

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 167 - Professor Tomoe and Hotaru

Next is Sailor Venus, Professor Tomoe and Sailor Pluto. None of these characters have much to do with each other, except perhaps for a brief interaction between Sailor Venus and Pluto in one episode of Sailor Stars. Sailor Venus belongs with the Sailor Guardians from the first season while Sailor Pluto fits in better with Sailor Uranus and Neptune or even with Sailor Chibi Moon. I would personally have put her with King Endymion but that’s because I like trolling people. Professor Tomoe is a villain and if he’s going to be paired with anyone but his fellow villains from the season it should probably be his daughter, and not the Sailor Guardians who steals his baby from him in Sailor Stars.

Next is Sailor Uranus and Neptune with … Tuxedo Mask! Naturally Sailor Pluto would have worked better here. There’s nothing these two lesbians love more than the show’s male love interest! At least Sailor Uranus and Neptune are together where they belong.

Sailor Moon Monopoly - Board

On the last side we have Sailor Moon with Sailor Saturn and Mistress 9. This sort of works since Sailor Moon fights Mistress 9 and sort of saves Sailor Saturn but these characters would fit so much better elsewhere. Saturn should be with her father or her friend Chibiusa and Mistress 9 could easily fit with the villains! It does of course work that two versions of Hotaru be grouped together.

Finally we have the only grouping that works well, and that is Neo Queen Serenity and King Endymion. The only issue here is that they don’t really appear in Sailor Moon S so they don’t fit with the game at all.

Live Action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Act 9 - Makoto the cop

Other groupings make some sense! The railroads are all items, either Talismans or Sailor Saturn’s Silence Glaive. The utilities are replaced by Sailor Moon’s items, that being her broach and rod. Jail and Free Parking are unchanged. It seems like there’s an opportunity here to use something a bit more Sailor Moon themed for these. Maybe Pharaon 90 sends you to the Tau Star System or something like that. A missed opportunity which leaves art which ultimately clashes with the rest of the game.

Sailor Moon Monopoly - Tokens

When it comes to the game pieces they are nice! These are the three Talismans, Sailor Moon’s Cosmic Heart Compact and Spiral Heart Moon Rod, and the Holy Grail. They’re all things and not characters but then aside from the dog most Monopoly game pieces are just things anyway.

Sailor Moon Monopoly - Money

The money is a bit odd. The colours and values are more or less kept from real Monopoly with different characters appearing on each bill. The money is all shown with an M with a slash through it. Moon dollars or something of the sort. It’s not like Sailor Moon takes place in a universe they don’t use normal currency. We frequently see prices and money in the series being yen. Is there some rule that a themed Monopoly came have some weird non existent currency?

Sailor Moon Monopoly - Love Cards

Finally we have the Love and Friendship Cards. These seem to basically be Chance and Community Chest cards with the flavour language changed and the same dollar amounts and consequences. The descriptions of what is occurring are just random events occurring during Sailor Moon S.

Sailor Moon Monopoly - Friendship Cards

Should you buy this game? If you wanted to I imagine you already would have! It’s just one of a very, very, very long series of Monopoly games with images based on many franchises. The specific decisions made in adapting this game seem to be pretty poor as someone with a minor amount of effort would likely have been able to put together property groupings and other aspects of the game which work much better. It seems like someone with next to no knowledge of the franchise was given a list of characters, art and perhaps episode summaries of Sailor Moon S and that they threw together a version of Monopoly that superficially seemed to have made sense. For my money the Sailor Moon games by Dyskami Publishing are a much better way to play a Sailor Moon game.

Keep reading for more photos of this game.

Sailor Moon Monopoly - Box

Sailor Moon Monopoly - Back of the box

Sailor Moon Monopoly - Game contents

Sailor Moon Monopoly - Houses, hotels and dice

Sailor Moon Monopoly - Instructions

Sailor Moon Monopoly - Instructions

Sailor Moon Monopoly - Love and Friendship Cards

Sailor Moon Monopoly - Properties

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19 thoughts on “Sailor Moon Monopoly game review

  1. I’ve had this on my list for awhile, but as I was afraid, it looks like just a reskin with little thought put into it.
    If they’d let real fans design these things they could make something special.
    I wonder how much of that is Toei preventing any deviation or imagination?

  2. I am tired. I shall now type against my better judgment. I may be awkward and crude with my typing, and sleep is good. Sleep is so good. I want sleep. But first..!

    Very nice review! Indeed, I got one of these (’twas a gift!) last Hanukkah. I’m a lifelong fan of Monopoly, so for the most part, I let this Sailor Moon themed edition slide by because I’m a fan. But, indeed, it doesn’t really feel like a tight and perfect SAILOR MOON board. It feels more like “A guy looked up Sailor Moon Wiki images for about twenty minutes and slapped them onto the board” edition. I do like the tokens, yeah, and some of the board does look pretty… flaws and all. lol

    So, yeah! I was gifted this, and I love it as a gift because I do like Monopoly (that makes me a freak, according to some of my Catan-kissing friends). Would I have bought it if I didn’t receive it as a present? Likely. But there are some serious missed opportunities and problems with this.

    tl;dr – Rambling and agreeing with the review.

    • That sums up how I feel about it. I’ll probably still get it eventually, I’m just not impressed. They should consult experts (eg people on Sailor Moon News comment sectionsXD) when making these things.
      Give me half an hour and I’d have a better layout than what they chose! Though…do to licensing they’d probably have rejected my ideas…
      All in all I don’t feel it’s terrible, not a bit, just lazy.

      The pieces are adorable, though.

      • Yeah! Exactly. Nail on the head! I don’t think this is an unholy abomination that should be locked in a chest and buried somewhere, à la Jamunji. But it just doesn’t go all the way. It doesn’t reach for the… Sailor Stars.

        Saintfighteraqua, when I read your comment, I imagined all of us in this site banding together to collaborate on a “proper” game board. Like a montage sequence from a movie. Complete with empowering music. Heh. It always is a curious feeling when you thinking, “Dang, I could do better…”

          • I landed on Black Lady’s space and turned into a sexy and evil (by Wiseman’s manipulation) version of myself. Mwaha!

          • Just great! As soon as I finish with these candy wrapper monsters I’ll try to remind you of the good times we’ve had and make you realize all those cruel internet arguments are just manipulated memories distorted to make you hate the rest of us.
            Someone roll already!! XD

          • “Just great! As soon as I finish with these candy wrapper monsters I’ll try to remind you of the good times we’ve had and make you realize all those cruel internet arguments are just manipulated memories distorted to make you hate the rest of us.”

            … *Gets extremely guilty and cries*

          • Also, Saint? Your Bonnon Babies comments legitimately got me hungry enough to enter a candy store, earlier today. Thought of you.

  3. “I landed on Black Lady’s space and turned into a sexy and evil (by Wiseman’s manipulation) version of myself. Mwaha!”

    Be careful: Van Pelt is going to be jealous of your new, sexy evil hat. He may be up to date with firearms, but not with clothing. So I’m afraid he might want you as his personal counselor…

    (By the way, who would like a Sailor Moon themed Mario Pary :D ?)

    • Van Pelt has hat envy, yes. Heh. Well, Van Pelt is more than welcome to approach me for advice or comfort, just as long as he doesn’t blow my head off. How can I wear a sexy hat, evil or not, without a head, I ask you?

      (You made me fidget and squeal. I would devour a Sailor Moon Mario Party. It needs to have mini-games that get people furious, though. It must. “Play Sailor Moon Party, with the power of heartbroken love and ruined friendships!”

      • “How can I wear a sexy hat, evil or not, without a head, I ask you?”
        Didn’t think of that first when I wrote my comment, but yeah, you’ve hit the nail!

        Be careful, though: after losing against Alan Parrish, I don’t think Van Pelt will like losing against you when you both play Sailor Moon Party. So you’d rather let him win if you don’t want your head to be blown off. I have good news for you, though: he told me that you could keep the candies :) .

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