Monopoly: Star Wars (collector's edition)

I'm an avid fan of the Monopoly games, but they always seem to do special editions wrong. An example of this is the James Bond Monopoly, where the places are named after the films... seriously?!? You couldn't possibly have come up with any place names from James Bond? Why am I putting a house on Goldfinger? It just seems wrong! Star Wars: Monopoly, however, restored some of my faith in the franchise.

The game

Produced in 1996, prior to the release of the prequel trilogy, this game focuses on the Universe seen within the first three films. Obviously, the characters you can play as are from Star Wars. Instead of Pounds or Dollars, you have Imperial Credits (we invented a house rule which meant that if you called it anything other than credits in context then you had to pay 5 credits to the bank) and instead of 'chance' and 'community chest' cards, you have rebels and imperials.

The places are a little confusing, with them usually being named after both a planet or big place (the Death Star being one of these, Tatooine being another) and an area in/on that place (e.g. Death Star: Landing bay). But, after playing a few games you get used to this (and believe me, you won't only play it once!)

Overall, the game plays like any other Monopoly game. The cards fit the atmosphere (including 'let the Wookie win', which I think you should pay to whoever plays as the wookie...) of Star Wars and highlights the greatness of the game. Plus you get to show off your Star Wars knowledge to your geeky friends :p

The characters you can play as are: Leia, Luke, R2D2, Chewbacca, Han Solo, Darth Vader, Bobba fett and a Storm Trooper (who we named TK421). You also get some cool 1000 credits coins in the game, which is quite cool.

I honestly think any Star Wars fan who can get their hands on this should play it- yes, it's a collector's edition, but games are made to be played!