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As a parent to two 5-year-olds, I've learned the hard lesson that Spongebob themed games have a very high chance to be WAY to difficult or complicated to be appropriate for it's target audience. I've encountered this crushing disappointment mostly in the medium of video/pc games, where I'm forced to play 80% of the game so they are able to enjoy any of it. Which ultimately means those games get "lost" and hopefully never found again. But, those are video games which, unlike the standard board game, don't come with age recommendations. It's easy to get burned buying Spongebob video games. Which raises the question, here...
Who decided to market Spongebob Monopoly, but not make it the Junior version? And who buys it?
I can't answer the first, except with "someone who wants money". The second I can answer easier: Closet Spongebob Fans. People who are too old to enjoy the show and socially admit it, but can't use the excuse of having kids because you don't BUY Monopoly to PLAY with a 5-year-old. At the recommended age of 8+, you should have developed some more mature interests (or encouraged your child to have done so, if you want to play the "kiddy" card).
But, let me put that aside for the moment and get to a session review. I played this game against one of the 5-year-olds, the decided target audience for Spongebob. With a slippery and unreliable grasp on counting, absolutely no clue about monetary worth (having a stack of 1s and 5s was better than a single $500, because there was more papers!), I handled everything except rolling for his turn. I handled trades by completing monopolies on each side, so pineapple "houses" could be built. I read everything, I moved everything.
I essentially played Spongebob Monopoly solo - with an Emotional AI attached to the Spongebob token. Which may be the best way to play this game. At 5 years old, you've still got good reasons to be happy or sad over random gains and losses. At 28 years old, I get the secret glee of crushing a 5-year-old in a completely random structure. It was great.
The saving grace for this version is the Plankton ruleset. This places a randomly variable time limit on the game. You get a visible, tangible STOP point. You know you're playing a short version, but you don't have to watch a timer. Presumably, playing with adults, you could get an endgame rush of attempts to cinch trades and rake in last minute money!
But wait! Don't go rushing out to buy Spongebob Monopoly at retail price just for this game-changing (and semi-saving) mechanic! This entire game mechanic can be purchased as an add-on to any existing Monopoly for the price of $0.01!
Or a marble. Or a pebble. Even some lint. If you want to bust the bank, use a quarter instead of a penny, you big spender!
The Plankton ruleset has you place the Plankton coin on the first property on the board (Plankton's HQ, in this case). The theme attached is that Plankton is heading to steal the Krabby Patty formula, and the game with END with Plankton reaches the Krabby Patty property (Boardwalk, in the standard Monopoly). For every 1 that is rolled, Plankton is moved one space around the board.
Additionally, if Plankton is on an unowned property, and you land on it at the same time, you get that property FREE. If you land on a property that is owned, but occupied by Plankton, the rent is doubled for that property. While this could seem like a big deal, at first, you'll only be affected by this sub-mechanic about as much as you would by "trying" to land on Free Parking for the big bucks. You might catch some early properties free (I picked up an orange), but by the time Plankton gets around to better properties, they're probably owned already. And the greater benefit or harm he could do is pretty much tied to how close the game is to ending.
You'll start cursing anyone who's rolled double ones.
After my earlier ranting, you may be wondering: Why do I, a 28-year-old, with two 5-year-olds own this game? Simple. I'm not the one who purchased it. I can blame that on a 13-year-old and her mother. I suspect the 13-year-old is one of those Closet Fans...
Why did I play it? Because it's in my household now, and I feel obliged to mark this as owned. And I didn't want to stare at zero plays, forever. And... at this moment, the highest amount of plays is at 2... I may have to wrangle the 5-year-old two more times for a shining speck of "pride".
At least he'll enjoy the theme...
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That's an interesting mechanic. One of the major problems with Monopoly is that the 'everyone but one goes bankrupt' resolution tends to stretch on far past the point where the game is interesting. It also leads to problems with player elimination.
With 40 spaces, though it would still seem to take a long time for it to actually matter. I'm not sure that many groups would make it that far, even with a goal in sight.
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I very much doubt I'm going to read a more amusing review of a Monopoly variant this year. Thank you 
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zuviel wrote: With 40 spaces, though it would still seem to take a long time for it to actually matter. I'm not sure that many groups would make it that far, even with a goal in sight. With only two players, we ran about an hour game. There was still an unowned property, and not nearly enough money had been made to build very much. I feel that the number of 1s rolled this game wasn't too many or too few. Adding more players (more rolls, but not more ground gained) will statistically shorten the game. If you could chain 8 people into playing this variant, the game just might end before it's managed to get very far, or reasonably interesting.
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Very well written! And I agree fully that many games, both video and board, totally miss their intended target audience. I have also played many games more or less solo, just telling my four year old what to do. For us, it is still memory that is the number one game. That one he can play competitively and win without any help whatsoever, which makes it more fun for all of us. Good review! 
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Great review.
Personally, I often wondered why people fall for "themed" Monopolies. I mean, come on, they don't even make an effort most of the time - mostly you get different tokens and different location names, and that's it. The graphics on the policemen, jail, free parking, etc. etc. are all just copy-pasted. Also, why would Spongebob (or Shrek, or Super Mario, or Spiderman, or Bender, or whoever in this paste-a-theme-o-ramas) go around buying and developing properties? Ok, I don't really watch the show, so perhaps there is a repeating theme of Spongebob's dastardly urban development schemes falling through because of dollar inflation...
As for the plankton mechanic, I think it's just addressing the fact that Monopoly gameplay is broken when it's played by those atrocious house rules that are more or less part of the lore now (free parking jackpot anyone). Statistically however, I think with more players the game wouldn't even get a chance to warm up before it ends. I'd rather throw out the plankton and play the game correctly.. if I really HAD to play Monopoly at all, that is.
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I happen to like Spongebob. I'm 42 and I can proudly admit it. I don't have young kids at home. I watch it of my own free will.
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I also admit to having this on my game list, along with Spongebob Life which is an even more annoying game (or just more mindless). This was on sale at a nice low price (I would never have bought it at the over-inflated Monopoly + character license price). Sadly I have to admit that Life was full price.
Our son is almost 7 and pretty advanced with his math skills so we have been playing this for about a year. It is good math practice although the trading aspect of Monopoly really doesn't come into play. With the shorter play using the Plankton marker (or penny, or rock, or ..) it has the potential to be an important part early to get sets especially when using the quick play 3 properties to each player. The nice thing about the themed version is that there is enthusiasm for collecting properties rather than the abstract place names. Having been raised in Australia I am used to the British version so the American version doesn't have the name recognition. And of course there are the mini versions of Spongebob, Patrick and others that can be used for so much more than playing Monopoly. I do recall playing Monopoly as a race between the dog, iron, battleship solitaire in my youth with no need for cards or an opponent (does this make my childhood an object of pity?)
I would say hold onto it and wait until they are ready before bringing it to the table for a serious game. Let them play with the pieces until then.
As far as target market for Spongebob, I thought that it was higher than 5 year olds. I know that when our son was enjoying it at 4 his grandparents thought it wasn't age appropriate. Still that is less certain than South Park, Family Guy etc. which he doesn't get to see until later. Of course Nick doesn't mind blurring that line to get a wider audience.
As for video games, the adventure style games I thought were not too
difficult for that age group. Those are the only ones that we have tried. The action type on the Nick website are too much for my arcade playing skills.
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Regretfully, the mechanic is not new to this version. The Lord of the Rings Monopoly I received as a gift a few years back has a similar mechanic, except that its a ring moving around the board and not Plankton 
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Posted Thu Jun 19,2008 09:26 pm
