Customer Reviews

Game of Life

5 star:		(82)
4 star:		(50)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(24)
1 star:		(26)

 

 

If you have ever played the earlier version of life please do yourself a favor and avoid this "new" version like the blak plague. My friends and I used to play the old version every single day up to late hours. Once we learned the new version was out we ran and bought it. WHAT A DISAPOINTMENT!!!! Compared to the old version this one is HORRIBLE. It isn't fun. The new rules [are not good]. You can not bet anymore. Money isn't the way it used to be (what's with the litte pieces of carton?) Maybe if someone at MB reads this they will go back to the basics and bring back what was once a great and fun family game to play. Lucky for us we still have, and play with, our old and much better version of Life.

Do NOT confuse this new version of LIFE with the old version!!! The old version is a classic--this new version is a big disappointment. In the new LIFE you don't get to choose your career or anything. Instead of monetary bonuses throughout the game (e.g. spinning for gifts when you have a child) you get these silly "Life" cards that you can't look at until the end. At the end you get huge amounts of money with each "Life" card and it's possible to win even if you don't have very much cash in front of you because of those cards. It's disappointing to play the whole game and then lose because of those cards, which are totally random. It's like you play the whole game and then spin to see who is the winner. We became very bored with this game very quickly because it's almost nothing like the old Life game. The old Life game was more true to life. The new game isn't.

I wish that I had read some of the reviews before I purchased this one. We had this game when I was a kid and it was one of my favorites. However, I didn't realize that they had revised the game.

I find the new format frustrating and empty. There isn't as much interaction between players in this one (others don't have to give you money when you get married, have children, etc.), except for the career spots and those detract from the game - they're pretty pointless and not true to the real world as we know it.

I have to agree with the previous reviewer who found the LIFE cards very annoying. There doesn't seem to be any hope for the underdog in this version; if you don't happen to pick a good salary, you won't win, no matter how many LIFE cards you pick up along the way.

I really wish that they had left the game the way it was! I think we'll go dig up the old one that my husband's parents have somewhere. That will be more fun!

Bottom Line: After wanting to own this game for a while, I wish I hadn't wasted my money. I'll just find an older used one. One word - disappointing.

Why did Hasbro dumb down the Game of Life? I remember playing as a child and getting points for each child and being able to gamble away all my money and take revenge on other players. It was a fun, challenging game. Now it is just a board game where you get some money. If they wanted a game younger people could play they could have made a child's version and an adult version. I miss the original!

When my daughter received a LIFE game for her birthday, we weren't sure if it would be a game the family would play more than once. After one session with the board, getting married having kids, paying bills, taking out loans and suffering major and minor setbacks in our "play lives," we decided it was a must play game for our family. My daughter kept having twins, paying taxes, and having auto accidents (which convinced her of the need for insurance when she starts to drive). She chose not to go to college, but to take a shortcut to the winner's circle, and found out that just as in real life, the uneducated receive a much smaller payday. Every other player beat her when it came to their financial situation at the end of the game. The next time we played, she selected college as the route to go. We recommend this game to every family out there who wants a game for everyone to enjoy. There are laughs galore, and a hilarious race to retirement. Pick one up and see what you're missing!

I am 24 and have played the original version countless times from the time I was a very small child. The new version has added several new and VERY confusing rules, changed the colors of the money (Which is only bad if you have the first version memorized), added many new parts which will just get lost, and have made it a more mean spirited game. It is now too confusing and boring for younger children (Under the age of 10-12). I truley wish my mother had not thrown away my first version just because the box was beyond destroyed.

I used to LOVE "The Game of Life." A friend and I bought this over the summer for her nine year-old son. What a disappointment! The board is difficult to assemble, the pieces pop out of the slots throughout the game, and the spinner doesn't work very well. They also added these strange and meaningless cards basically makes the millionaire spot pointless, and they also changed the stock market. I really hope my dad hasn't thrown away my original game, because this one is not what I remembered.

Maybe I just dislike change, but when I purchased this game, I was very excited, only to be crestfallen when I set it up and played it.
The rules and gameplay have been drastically altered, as is the quality and set up. You must set up the board every time you play it, inserting the useless little houses on the board, and setting up the bridges. While they're okay to look at, if we have to set the game up like that every time, it's not worth it. Print the whole board if you can't box it properly. The gameplay is not as good as the old version, period. I remember playing the previous version and frankly, this one just doesn't measure up. I wish they would re-release the previous version!

Just got the "new and improved" Game of Life, played it once and I'm still seething at the way the game has been dumbed down and turned into a politically correct self-esteem lesson with an almost completely random outcome. There's no value in going to college, and you're forced to pick up loans to boot. Heck, you can be an artist and if you get the right random pick you can still pull down $100K a year. Meanwhile the doctor might wind up making $20K. I guess it's not fair to teach the kids that a college education makes an actual difference in earning power in "real" life. In the first game we played, my son randomly got $100K a year and I got $80K. The rest of the family went down from there. Guess who won? Him. Next? Me. Right down the line. The old game just wasn't like that. Want to be a Computer Consultant? No college degree required. Huh?! There are almost no actual lessons of life here. Pay a chunk of money for a nice house so you can build equity, right? Wrong. Your home doesn't build equity, and you can't even count its value when you cash out at the end. You're better off buying the mobile home than a nice home that will appreciate. What are we teaching here?

Besides all that, the quality of the materials is lower, the board has to be set up every time, the hills don't stay put, and the spinner jams in the hands of little kids. Last (but not least) the little pink and blue people just won't stay in the car. They seem to leap to their deaths at every turn, perhaps jumping out of sheer embarassment at being associated with such a watered down imitation of a once fabulous game.

Next time I play I'm skipping college entirely, becoming an artist, buying the mobile home, and pulling down $100K. You know who's gonna come out on top! What wonderful lessons for life...

If you loved playing Life as a kid, don't buy the new revised version. They took out all the fun by making it politically correct. If you find the original game, buy it and buy it fast. That's what I'm going to do. Just wish that I could return the new version.