6 giant versions of classic board games
Play the life-sized Game of LIFE in real life
San Jose, Calif., boasts one of the world's largest Monopoly boards, complete with giant properties, playing pieces, and dice.
San Jose, Calif., boasts one of the world's largest Monopoly boards, complete with giant properties, playing pieces, and dice. CC BY: HarshLight

1. The Game of LIFE
In an effort to attract tourists to their remote town, the people of the Japanese island of Yoron are transforming their land into a giant version of the Game of LIFE. Participants in the game will be given maps, fake money for game-play, and clues to their tasks. The island will also include a giant roulette spinner and buses in place of the game's car playing pieces.

2. Chess
"To promote chess as a recreational activity for all ages," Canada's Medicine Hat Chess Society built a large version of the game, which features pieces that tower as high as four feet and weigh a collective 870 pounds. In 2009, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized the chess set as the world's largest.

3. Mousetrap
Mousetrap enthusiast and builder Mark Perez constructed 25-ton version of the Rube Goldberg-esque machine from the classic board game. Perez takes the gigantic contraption on tour to festivals and fairs around the country.

4. Monopoly
Discovery Meadow in San Jose, Calif., is home to "Monopoly in the Park," one of the world's largest Monopoly boards. To play on the 930-square-foot cement board, participants wear special helmets with the game's signature pieces on top of them, roll a giant pair of dice, and place specially designed green houses and red hotels on their properties.

5. Scrabble
In celebration of the word game's 50th anniversary in 1998, London's famed Wembley Stadium briefly housed the biggest game of Scrabble in the world. The board covered most of the playing field, with British soldiers hoisting letter tiles as big as kitchen tables onto the boards at the behest of players.

6. Snakes & Ladders
The game better known in the United States as Chutes & Ladders got the life-size treatment in 2010 when the Faculty of Business and Economics at Indonesia's University of Surabaya (UBAYA) created a massive version of the game on the floor of the school's main building. The game board had an area just over 45 feet and used 105 people in 35 teams to stage a massive "Snakes & Ladders" tournament.



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