Money makes the world go round! Cash is king! Money is power! The best things in life are free, money isn’t everything and money can’t buy happiness! Whatever your outlook and thoughts about money, one thing is a nailed on certainly – we all need it! We all have bills to pay and food to buy, the very basic necessities to survive require what some consider the root of all evil, MONEY, COLD HARD CASH! So back to one of those questions earlier, can money buy happiness? Yes, of course it can, especially in the board game world anyway when you are playing for BIG MONEY!
Are you ready to dive into the world of high finance, where the dice roll decides your fate, and the zillions are just a play away? In the board game Big Money from Ravensburger, players must collect as much money as they can and become the richest player around the table! Forget millionaires or even billionaires, in Big Money you can become a zillionaire! That is indeed big money!
Big Money is a dice and money game, think of it as the baby of the classic dice game Yahtzee and the real-estate money game Monopoly. A game of strategy, shrewd investments and BIG MONEY! A game of risky rolls and fabulous fortunes for 2-5 players, age 8+ with a playing time of around 30 minutes.
In the box:
- Game Board
- Dice Cup
- 6 Dice (5 regular numbered dice, 1 pictorial industry die)
- 47 Cards (Start-up Asset Card, Gold-backed Asset Cards and Biz News Cards)
- 120 banknotes ($1, $5 and $10 Zillion Banknotes)
- Instructions / Game Rules
Big Money is a game where risky rolls of the dice can accumulate ludicrous fortunes, big wads of cash and everybody can get crazy rich. The game is played until the bank runs out of money. An excellent game that can be played by kids, adults and families. And it all starts with the box which has been designed to look like a massive stack of bank notes! Although if you had that kind of cash on your shelf, would you really be sitting around playing a board game? Err, yes – board games are lots of fun and great entertainment, even millionaires, billionaires and zillionaires need to spend quality time with the family and have fun.
When dealing with high stakes money, large amounts of cash, you have to be sure of what you are doing. That goes for this board game as well. Read the rules before starting to play, and then read them again. The game rules are clear and easy to read, but understanding them wasn’t as easy until we started to play. Once we had read and digested the rules and started to play, the understanding comes and makes more sense, actually being very simple and easy to follow.
As with most board games, before you can play there is some setting up to do. It starts with, as mentioned above, reading and rereading the rules before moving on to setting up the board. The game board unfolds and gets placed in the centre of the table within easy reach of all players. Choose a player to be the Banker who then sorts the money into stacks of $1 Zillion, $5 Zillion and $10 Zillion piles. Each player chooses one start-up asset card (they have green backs so easily identifiable), it could be a Luxury Limo Service (Travel category), a High Fashion Magazine (Entertainment category), Drone Racing League (Sports category), a Video Game Studio (Technology category) or a Food Fleet Truck (Food category) and places it face-up on the table in front of them. All start-up assets have the same value of $5 Zillion, so nobody is getting any monetary advantage to begin with. Shuffle the gold-backed asset cards and place them face-down on the game board, drawing four cards and placing them face-up on the Market area of the game board. Shuffle the Biz News cards and place them face-down on the game board. No player receives any money to start with, you must earn your zillions. You are ready to play, let the roll of the dice decide your financial decisions (hopefully not in real life though).
The game starts with all the players being poor – no money, just big dreams and a single start-up asset card. From there, it’s a wild ride of rolling dice, collecting cash, and buying assets. And the youngest player gets to start their journey to become a zillionaire (dinner might be on them tonight).
To play, the starting player puts all six dice in the dice cup, gives them a good shake and rolls them on to the table. Firstly, take a look at the industry die (it will be a picture), any player that has an asset card from the category shown on the die receives the value of that card from the bank (start-up assets are worth $5 Zillion, others are worth between $5 and $15 Zillion). Roll a pig and you will need to pick up a Biz News card and read it aloud – be warned, these generally see players lose money or assets. With the numbered dice, if you have ever played Yahtzee you will know what to do; roll a combination of:
- 1 pair (two dice of the same number)
- 2 pairs (two dice of one number and two of another)
- 3 of a Kind (three dice of the same number)
- Little Straight (four dice of consecutive numbers)
- Full House (three dice of one number and two dice of another number)
- 4 of a Kind (four dice of the same number)
- Big Straight (five dice of consecutive numbers)
- 5 of a Kind (five dice of the same number)
Players have three rolls to get try and get the best combination they can. Depending on the combination after the rolls of the dice have finished, that player will receive from the bank anything between $5 and $30 Zillion (amounts for each combination are printed on the game board). Once the payout has been collected, the player can choose to buy an asset, picking from the four face-up asset cards on the game board.
The game continues around the table with players strategizing, collecting money and buying assets until the bank runs out of money. The winner is the one that has accrued the most amount of cash to become the game’s biggest zillionaire!
Overall, Big Money really is a fun family game. Can money buy happiness? Yes, definitely, when it is the form of a fun family-friendly board game where you could be rolling in zillions. A board game with the classic gameplay of Yahtzee but with some added extras that makes it even more appealing to children, families and competitive capitalists.
A great game where all players collect large wads of cash with every roll of the dice and then must make decisions about when to buy assets to increase their already large fortunes.
As a family game, it is superb over-the-top game and we have enjoyed playing it. It is very simple to play, but it also encourages strategic thinking, problem solving and, even though the values of the bank notes are ludicrous, also promotes the value of money and counting skills. With a playing time of 30-40 minutes, it doesn’t take too long to play, and nobody loses interest in the game whilst playing. It is an excellent game for social interaction as well as it gets everybody talking, laughing and interacting with each other.
Although after playing the game, it is probably best to put the box away. As it looks like a big stack of cash, you wouldn’t want someone accidentally taking it to the bank! Joking aside, it doesn’t come in a big box so if you are limited on space, it makes it a lot easier to store on the board game shelf and isn’t so large that you couldn’t throw it in your back to play somewhere else.
Big Money is a fantastic fun family game. It can be a very competitive game, but is lots of fun and with a playing time that is just right for all age groups. Can you become the biggest ZILLIONAIRE in a game of economic anarchy?
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £9.99
For more information, visit www.ravensburger.co.uk. Available to buy from Amazon here.
