Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Short review: Yes, this is the original version of Life that you are looking for. If you want the version that you had as a kid, this is it. Buy it. Long review: I had The Game of Life when I was a kid (in the '70's). I don't know what eventually happened to it, but I do not have it anymore. I bought a new edition of the game a few years ago. It was NOT the same as the old version that I had as a kid. It was a BAD new version. There was too much chance involved, little interaction between players, and the details of what happened to you during the game had little effect on the outcome because there are these dopey little tiles that are worth a huge amount of money that dwarfs any money you might have made during the game. So, although the new version of the game might reflect real life in that what you do during your life has no effect on how it ends, it wasn't very fun. This version that I'm reviewing now is the GREAT old version. You have to actually make decisions that have an effect on the outcome, although there is still quite a bit of chance involved. The box says it's for ages 10 and up, but my 7 and 9 year olds really enjoy it and they're learning a little about insurance, taxes, making money decisions, and, of course, revenge. Contrary to what another reviewer said, I don't notice any difference in the quality of this game versus what I recall of the version of my youth. The buildings look great and the printing on the board is fine. I was excited to see that the print style on the Share the Wealth cards was exactly the same as my childhood version. It is true that there are no images of Art Linkletter on this edition of the game, but if that is extremely important to you, you can probably print some from the internet and tape them to the box. The game takes us about an hour to play with 4 people, two of whom are children who are occasionally somewhat distractible. So although you may disagree with one of the ultimate lessons of this game, that the person who ends life with the most money is the winner, it's really a good game and there are actually other useful lessons about how life works that I didn't really notice as a kid. I gave it four stars for durability only because the money and cards and board will probably start to show some wear after awhile, but that can't be helped. And four stars for educational value because not all of the events that occur are entirely plausible or realistic. But five stars for fun and five stars overall because it is really a great game and because I was so excited to see that future generations will not have only that horrible new version of the game available to them.