Stern’s Monopoly, released in 2001 and designed by the great Pat Lawlor, turns the world’s most famous board game into one of the most family-friendly and replayable machines of its era. Its standout gimmick is a rotating flipper — a third flipper that physically pivots to change the shots available — alongside an LED marquee and six pop bumpers, all in service of the timeless fantasy of buying up the board and bankrupting your opponents.
The game brilliantly mirrors its source. The center ramp sends you “around the board,” advancing your token and lighting locks, and it’s a wonderfully safe, repeatable shot that funnels you toward the four-ball multiball where the real money lives. Shooting the Railroad ramp five times starts a two-ball multiball (easily backhanded from the left flipper and repeatable), while in multiball the left ramp pays a million and the Electric Company below it pays two. The clever scoring wrinkle is Cash Grab — the only mode that stacks with multiball — so the savvy play is to start it once multiball is lit for doubled-up scoring.
There’s smart strategy throughout, from skipping the Waterworks skill shot in favor of the roll-and-collect saucer to advance the board, to managing your properties for escalating rents. Approachable enough for a family game night yet deep enough to keep a regular chasing big multiball scores, Monopoly is Lawlor proving that a household name could make a genuinely great pinball machine. Pass Go, collect your jackpots, and try not to land in jail.