Game of Life Generations, Ranked: Which One is the Best of them All in my Opinion?
As you may already have known by now, Hasbro's Game of Life - its second most recognizable board game after Monopoly - has been around for 60 years now, having been introduced in 1960, and is still going strong in 2020. In that time, it has evolved through four distinct generations, with the first two of those receiving a redesign partway through their lifespans. So which one is the best, according to my humble opinion? To determine a definitive ranking, I will consider a variety of factors, such as difficulty, balance, and most importantly of all, fun factor. In addition, I won't treat redesigns of the same generation separately, nor will I include any of the spin-offs such as the Adventure, Fame and Twists & Turns Editions due to their different rule sets. So here they are, from worst to best - relatively speaking, since there has never been a bad version of the Game of Life, only good ones.
4th: Generation 1 (1960-1989) - Strong Start Squandered By An Overstayed Welcome
Some of you are wondering why the original version of Hasbro's Game of Life isn't the best. Part of this is due to relative unfamiliarity among younger fans, including myself, but also because it was less balanced gameplay-wise than any of its successors - something that its original creator, Milton Bradley, could not have foreseen. For example, it was possible to be eliminated from the game altogether if you failed to spin the number you had bet on after attempting to become a Millionaire Tycoon upon landing on the Day of Reckoning space (which led straight to the Poor Farm) - not an ideal way to finish a game. Besides, anyone who actually becomes a Millionaire Tycoon will win the game, thereby preventing others from retiring normally unless they have already done so - and where's the fun in that?
On the other hand, the original Game of Life introduced all the basic principles of the game we are familiar with, and many of its features (such as Share the Wealth Cards and Lucky Day, the latter being known as Spin To Win in recent years) would be present in at least one subsequent edition of the game. Moreover, Stock certificates were depicted more realistically than in any subsequent version of the game: some Collect Spaces could only affect players who had already purchased stocks, while on the other hand, there were also Pay Spaces that, if landed on, would cause any stock owner to lose money. Finally, it is the only version to support eight players instead of six or four, as in later versions, and it was the longest-lived one as well, with a total lifespan of 30 years - although for some reason, this was a much longer run than anticipated, which meant that it almost became stale by the late 1980s, thereby necessitating a redesign (more on which later).
3rd: Generation IV (since 2013) - A Decent Idea Compromised By Oversimplification
The latest version of the Game of Life isn't the greatest either, but at least it's not the worst. Unlike all previous versions, it only supports four players, which would've been fine if Hasbro kept some of the more interesting features found in earlier editions. But they didn't, and so this version falls short on fun factor compared to its predecessors. In particular, players now compete not for money, but for points. At least the Action Cards in this version are well worth collecting (100,000 points each), and the game now incentivizes early retirements by giving larger cash bonuses to players who reach the end of the board and retire before their opponents do.
Giving each career an investment number from the get-go (as opposed to having to buy one) seems odd to me, though, especially since you can now use it to collect money from opponents, not just the bank. And to confuse matters further, some video game adaptations of this version also change the amount of money awarded through careers' investment numbers, making some of them needlessly overpowered - an issue that is sadly not unique to this version of the Game of Life, and especially undesirable here.
In fairness, the decision to downsize the game to four players makes sense given that many recent spin-offs of the Game of Life also support four players each. In my opinion, those off-shoots benefit greatly from the faster pace that ensues from having to support only four players. However, in the regular Game of Life, it only serves to create a game that I consider to be too short compared to what it once was. Finally, the fact that house purchases are now optional (rather than mandatory), and even then can only be done upon landing on a House space (of which there are now several, has traditionalists up in arms, to say the least. All things considered, this still isn't the worst version of the Game of Life to have been released, but it's a long way from the best. Speaking of which, the next entry is a much stronger contender for that title.
2nd: Generation III (2007-2013) - Intensity that was Too Good to Last
Picking a winner proved to be more difficult than I had realized, so I'll start with the merits of Generation III. Firstly, it was the first version of the Game of Life not to be significantly redesigned in any way during its production run, since much of it was fundamentally right from the outset. It also reintroduced Spin to Win (formerly known as Lucky Day), wedding and baby gifts, and Share the Wealth Cards after a long absence, while also discarding insurance policies due to the fact that they had lost much of their effectiveness in Generation II. Moreover, it introduced us to the all-new Lawsuit mechanic, which allowed you to take money directly from another player ($100,000) unless they had an Exemption Card, in which case they had to hand that card in to the bank instead.
This version of the Game of Life also spawned more video game adaptations than any other, which explains my familiarity with it. Returning to the subject of gameplay, it made house purchases more manageable than previously, since you could no longer make a loss upon selling a house. Better still, stock cards, which were now referred to as Long-Term Investments, now cost much less to purchase; as such, buying them was now more worthwhile than ever before, especially in the early stages of the game. Life Tile values had already been decreased midway through the previous version's life cycle, but they were still useful here. Finally, Generation III turned out to be the last version of the Game of Life ever to support up to six players, which I feel is the ideal maximum for this sort of game.
So why isn't it my all-time favorite version of the Game of Life? Blame it on balance and unpredictability, or in this case, the relative lack of either at times. Some of this stems from the fact that this was the first version of the game in which College Careers were overpowered (especially the highest-paying ones), for three reasons: First, they tended to pay out more over the course of a game (at least initially) than most regular careers. Second, it was quite easy to obtain higher-paying College Careers early on, especially with the newly introduced mechanic of returning to school to either swap your current career with any unused College Career, or earn two Pay Raises worth $10,000. Speaking of which, they're the third reason why this game is not as unpredictable as I'd hoped, since there are just four careers which don't have a maximum salary limit.
There are other areas where the game lacks balance. For example, a player who loses too much money from lawsuits will struggle to get back into the game, and losing your job after passing the Return to School space is more detrimental than if it occurs earlier, since there is no way to regain your previous job. Most egregiously of all, winning $500,000 in Spin to Win can potentially put a player very far out of reach of any opponent, especially if that player manages to do so multiple times - yet another reason why this version of the game is not always as unpredictable as its predecessor, and it may even (at least partially) explain why this version of the Game of Life had such a short print run of just six years.
Even so, I consider this to be among the most enjoyable versions of the Game of Life ever to be released. In particular, with four or more players, it becomes very intense, especially in the later stages of a game. And the fact that this is the only version since the original to feature Share the Wealth Cards also adds a strategic element not seen since the original. Nevertheless, it must still finish second in my order behind its predecessor - and I am about to show you why.
1st: Generation II (1991-2006) - The Best Version to Date... But Only Just
Surprised that this version of the Game of Life is at the top of this list? So am I. It may be due to the fact that, for the first fifteen years of my life, the second edition of the Game of Life was the only one I ever knew about, and therefore the first one I ever bought; I played it quite often in my youth. However, it's not the only reason why it sits atop my list. It also represented a major turning point in the history of the Game of Life, where it attempted to become more relevant with the times - and succeeded. This is borne out in its longevity - it was in print for a total of fifteen years, which, while only half as long as its predecessor, is still a very long time, and twice as long as the lifespans (to date) of both the third and fourth generations combined.
What else can possibly explain why the second edition of the Game of Life is somehow still my favorite even after all these years? I suspect it comes down to the fact that, unlike any other version of the Game of Life, each career was compatible with multiple salary values instead of just one; in fact, prior to the 2002 redesign, any career could be combined with any salary value. Also, you were far less likely to lose your job (and salary) than in Generation III, and in addition to that, had two chances to change your career (and salary) voluntarily instead of just one, and at a lower price to boot ($20,000 instead of $50,000).
Unlike its immediate predecessor, Generation II also lacked any instant loss or win conditions, which I believed ruined the fun if any of them were met. Instead, everyone would be guaranteed to retire at the end of the game. Speaking of which, this was the first version of the Game of Life to refer to the two retirement options as Countryside Acres or Millionaire Estates - a trait shared with all later versions.
Choosing either option over the other was also more likely to decide the outcome of a game than in any subsequent version of the Game of Life. Countryside Acres retirees would receive a Life Tile (taking from another player if necessary, unless there was nobody to take it from) and could not have their Life Tiles taken from them, but could not receive the stash of four Life Tiles at Millionaire Estates. Millionaire Estates retirees, on the other hand, could have their Life Tiles taken from them if the draw pile ran out, but they would receive four Life Tiles if they were the wealthiest player to retire there. This could lead to some unexpected outcomes, especially before the 2002 redesign which we will discuss later.
In addition, although this version had only nine Career Cards in all, only two of them required a college degree, whereas exactly half of the 12 Career Cards in Generation III had this requirement. On top of that, you could choose from one of three each of Career and Salary Cards if you earned a college degree at the start of the game. Moreover, this was the first version to feature Life Tiles, which were originally worth between $50,000 to $250,000 in increments of $50,000, thereby providing players with a means of gaining yet more money if they had little cash on hand upon retirement. All this led to a level of overall unpredictability, intensity and competitiveness more often seen than in any other version of the Game of Life - one that I fear may never be seen again.
In fact, even after the 2002 redesign (the 40th Anniversary re-issue was nothing more than an aesthetic makeover) which sorted salary cards into one of four color groups (red, yellow, green or blue), restricted every Career card to a salary belonging to either of two of those groups, and even reduced the value of all Life Tiles five-fold (to between $10,000 and $50,000, in $10,000 increments), it was still quite possible to have a close, exciting game - if anything it was even more likely than before the redesign. Another reason for this competitiveness is that unlike in other versions, there were several spaces where you could trade your Salary Card with one belonging to another player, and if your salary was low relative to your opponent's, it would leave you in a strong position while at the same time also putting your opponent at a disadvantage. However, this meant that the best salary to have was often the second-highest-paying one among all players - the player(s) with the highest-paying one would often be the target of salary trades as a result.
As icing on the cake, this was the first version of the Game of Life to receive a computer game adaptation while it was still in print - something to be expected in modern times, but totally out of the question with its predecessor due to the absence of the technology required for such a project. Crucially, though, the virtual board game version added extra modes and features that the source material did not have, thereby improving the fun factor. This trend would continue in all subsequent video game adaptations of the Game of Life, which explains their popularity, especially among casual gamers. There was even a mobile phone game based on the original release of this version in the mid-2000s, and while it had a different set of mini-games, it too proved to be as enjoyable as expected.
It's not perfect, though. For starters, players originally did not sell their houses upon retirement, making the cheaper options more attractive (hence my preference for a house rule requiring every house to be sold for 50% more than its original price at the end of the game). Even though the first major redesign finally added resale values for houses (and a space where you could sell your current house mid-game in place of a Life Tile space), they were all dependent on the number(s) you could have spun when you attempted to sell them, and this meant that, as before, some houses were still less worthwhile to purchase than others.
Another problem with this version is that although some careers are more lucrative than others, it's arguably more pronounced here than it was before or since. For example, the Accountant is especially coveted since anyone with that career not only collects taxes from others, but doesn't have to pay them in return. On the other hand, the Police Officer is the least prized career, despite its ability to collect $5,000 ($10,000 after the redesign) from any player who spins a 10; it has only one space associated with it, and even that one yields the officer only $15,000 when someone with another career lands on it. To counter this, all other non-College Careers received special abilities in the 2002 redesign. Even so, the problem of different levels of lucrativity remained, and thus all career-specific abilities were omitted altogether from all future installments.
As a side note, in this version of the Game of Life, Stock Cards were less useful than they (or their equivalents) were in other versions; although they yielded $10,000 when anyone spun their number after someone bought them, each one cost $50,000 to purchase. To mitigate this shortcoming, Hasbro added a space which would yield a free Stock Card if landed on (unless every Stock Card was already in use), along with a pair of spaces that would cost you one Stock Card if landed on, to balance this out.
Nevertheless, for all its faults, Generation II still remains my favorite version of the Game of Life - and deservedly so, but only by a whisker.
Conclusion
Having played every version of the Game of Life to date, I have learned that the best ones stand out mainly for a few things: well-judged gameplay balance, decent length (but obviously not as long as Monopoly, which Hasbro also publishes), and enough fun factor to keep you interested for hours on end. The second and third generations of the Game of Life, more than any other before or since, had these qualities in spades, and as such these versions remain firm favorites of mine to this day. Hopefully, Hasbro can bring back these elements for future versions of the Game of Life and restore the fun factor that made earlier versions so great in the eyes of players and fans.
