Board Games: Then and Now

Change are in store for some of your favorite old board games.

Remakes are everywhere these days -- and the world of board games isn’t being spared. Countless hits from the past have been dragged out of the metaphorical closets of Hasbro, Parker Brothers, and Milton Bradley, only to be re-released for modern audiences, boasting facelifts, rule tweaks, electronic gizmos, and all manner of other “improvements.”

But Monopoly with credit cards? Battleship with spacecrafts? Clue with a baseball bat? Be warned -- you might not recognize some of these reimagined classics.

Monopoly (Then)

Monopoly (Now)

Think you’ve played the original version of Monopoly? Guess again. Starting as a 1904 anti-capitalist work called “The Landlord’s Game,” it would take the game some thirty years to evolve into something recognizably Monopoly. Nowadays, the game is available in a bewildering variety of special and licensed editions, themed after everything from Betty Boop to late ‘90s dot-com companies (yes, including Yahoo!). Next up? A crazy, hi-tech version called Monopoly Live, which features electronic card readers and a towering computer in the middle of the board that tracks everyone’s progress. It’s due out this fall.

Clue (Then)

Clue (Now)

Classic whodunit Clue ain’t what it used to be, either. Walk into a toy store today looking for a copy, and chances are you’ll walk out with Hasbro’s new, revamped version -- and you may not like the contents. Gone are the traditional characters, replaced with football players, TV stars, and a billionaire game designer, while new cards give the simple gameplay an extra twist or two. Whether or not that’s welcome will probably depend on how much of a traditionalist you are; the new version earned decidedly mixed reactions from fans.

Mouse Trap (Then)

Mouse Trap (Now)

“Build a better mousetrap,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the world will beat a path to your door.” And let’s face it: it ain’t too hard to build a better mousetrap than the notoriously unreliable Rube Goldberg contraption in this classic. The latest version features three different traps that are set off at intervals throughout the game...if they work, that is. It’s only available in Europe at present, but consumer reviews indicate it’s just as rickety as the old-fashioned game.

Sorry! (Then)

Sorry! (Now)

Teaching children to be vindictive and cruel since the 1920s, Sorry! has a lot to answer for. So what better way to update it than by letting players physically knock each other’s pawns out of the way? Sorry! Sliders, Parker Brothers’ latest spin-off, mashes up the familiar formula with a sort of four-way shuffleboard, making for a compelling, customizable skill game that’s really rather fun.

Risk (Then)

Risk (Now)

World-domination game Risk has come out with many special editions over the years, but none have been as intriguing as the upcoming Risk: Legacies. It’s an innovative, fascinating twist on the regular game that uses stickers, disposable cards, and sealed decks to give your strategic decisions consequences that last way beyond just one game. Color us intrigued; look for it in mid-November.

Battleship (Then)

Battleship (Now)

Thought Battleship was a simple game of naval combat, luck, and logic? Not any more. Launching earlier this year, Battleship Galaxies swaps seafaring vessels for spaceships, squares for hexagons, and pencil sketches for intricate miniature models. It's an unlikely-sounding game, but gets good reports from those who like that sort of thing, although the complex rules will likely scare off strategy novices. So what's next?A Battleship movie starring Liam Neeson and True Blood’s Alexander Skarsgård? Naa, that’s just crazy talk..

Guess Who? (Then)

Guess Who? (Now)

Classic 20 Questions-style puzzler Guess Who? Was plenty of fun, but once you figured out the best questions to ask, it’s not the most exciting of games. So check out the more recent “Mix and Mash” editions that replace the familiar 24 flip-down faces with cardboard tiles that combine to yield more like 3,000 possibilities. For once, the new version is a definite improvement.

Trivial Pursuit (Then)

Trivial Pursuit (Now)

If you want a good laugh, try playing Trivial Pursuit with the original questions. While the facts of science and history haven’t changed much in, oh, thirty years, sports and entertainment sure have. Fortunately for those of us who can’t remember back that far, the question decks have been repeatedly updated over the decades, and the latest Triv incarnation even comes with an electronic timer -- just the thing to keep those old fogies on their toes.

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