Photo by Gail

Combine the world’s most famous rock band with one of the world’s most famous board games and you get The Beatles Collector’s Edition of MONOPOLY, a game that turns the familiar pursuit of real estate into a trip through Beatles history.

This particular version is the 2010 Collector’s Edition, recognizable by its terrific collage-style box featuring images of The Beatles at different points in their career. There are the young Beatles in their early suits, later-era photographs, silhouettes recalling some of the band’s iconic imagery such as the walk across Abbey Road and the cover of their 1965 album and eponymous film, HELP! Mr. Monopoly himself even gets in on the action. It’s a pretty great piece of Beatles memorabilia before you even open the box.

Inside, the traditional Monopoly experience gets a decidedly Fab Four makeover. Instead of buying properties around Atlantic City, players collect spaces connected to the Beatles and their music, including the band’s legendary albums and places such as Apple Studios and Abbey Road Studios. The familiar Monopoly terminology gets reworked along the way, too. Houses become Listening Parties, hotels become Concerts, and the Monopoly money is replaced with “Love.” Even the Chance and Community Chest cards have been reinvented as The Fab Four and Beatlemania cards.

Then there are the playing pieces, which may be the most charming part of the game. The six pewter tokens are little tributes to Beatles songs: a strawberry for Strawberry Fields Forever, a walrus for I Am the Walrus, a raccoon for Rocky Raccoon, a sun for Here Comes the Sun, an octopus for Octopus’s Garden, and a hammer for Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. It’s the kind of detail that makes this feel less like a game with a Beatles logo slapped on it and more like a genuine fan’s version of Monopoly.

Of course this isn’t the only Beatles Monopoly game. An earlier Collector’s Edition was released in 2008, while a Yellow Submarine edition followed in 2013. The 2008 and 2010 Collector’s Editions can be particularly easy to confuse, but the packaging gives them away: the earlier version features a more straightforward early-Beatles photograph, while the 2010 edition uses the career-spanning collage seen here.

For Beatles fans, that’s part of the fun. The game turns the band’s music, imagery and history into something you can actually play with, while the box itself becomes a colorful piece of pop-culture memorabilia. If you’re going to spend an afternoon arguing over property and money, why not do it while collecting Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, The White Album and the rest of the Beatles’ catalog? All you need is Love, and ‘a little luck’ with the dice.