- Designed by Paul Peterson
- Published by AEG
- For 2-4 players (I prefer 3 or 4, but it works with 2) ages 10 and up.
- Playtime is 45-60 minutes. More people lead to slightly longer games, but the difference isn't that noticeable.
Catch
Combine two completely different decks of creatures (Ninjas, Aliens, Dinosaurs, Pirates, Zombies, Wizards, Tricksters, or Microbots) in order to take over bases.
Combine two completely different decks of creatures (Ninjas, Aliens, Dinosaurs, Pirates, Zombies, Wizards, Tricksters, or Microbots) in order to take over bases.
Mechanics
On your turn, you may play 1 minion and 1 action from your hand. Minions are played to bases, and they all have a strength value, which is used to determine if a base is "smashed." Actions affect something in play, either a one time ability, or through lasting effects on minions or bases. Minions are added to bases until the base's breakpoint is reached. At that point, whoever has the highest minion strength receives 1st place points, second highest gets 2nd place points, and third gets 3rd. The first player to get to 15 total points wins the game.
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| Sample Faction Cards (Image provided by the publisher) |
Interaction
There is a great deal of interaction is Smash Up. Many minions mess with the best laid plans of others. The same goes for actions. Some decks are more interactive than others, but every deck has the ability to mess with other players in some way.
There is a great deal of interaction is Smash Up. Many minions mess with the best laid plans of others. The same goes for actions. Some decks are more interactive than others, but every deck has the ability to mess with other players in some way.
Theme
Smash Up has a cool theme concept, and it carries it through reasonably well. The different decks tend to behave in ways you'd expect from them. For example, the Ninjas are very stealthy with some minions being able to join a base right before it scores. The Aliens have a lot of cards that send other minions back to their owner's hand or deck. All of these ideas make sense, but I feel like the theme could be more immersive.
Components
Biggest complaint of Smash Up is that there is no way to keep score, so players have to use pen and paper, dice, or some form of counter. Now, this isn't a huge drawback, but it is something that the game should have included from the start. (Note that the expansion comes with victory point counters, so AEG did recognize and fix the problem.) The cards are great, they shuffle easily. All the artwork is fantastic and definitely enhances the theme. Another complaint is that the game doesn't really have an easy way to organize all the minions on all the different bases. In a 4 player game, there are 5 bases, potentially each with 4 different players' minions. That's 25 piles of cards, which gets busy.
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| Game in progress |
Components
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| One of the best game storage boxes |
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| 2 Sample bases |
Learning Curve
Smash Up is fairly straight forward to learn, but it's not the most intuitive game to play well. There is a fair bit of strategy when it comes to when and where to play minions. Some of the actions have odd interactions so it really take a play or two to get some of these things down.
Replayability
I've played it 8 times in the past 6 months and I'm enjoying it. I'm not playing super often, but it still finds table time every so often. If you play every game with 4 players, you use all the decks, so that could get old fast. I've played all the decks at this point, but I haven't played every combination, or even seen every combination. Each deck combination really does feel different, and presents unique challenges.
Smash Up is fairly straight forward to learn, but it's not the most intuitive game to play well. There is a fair bit of strategy when it comes to when and where to play minions. Some of the actions have odd interactions so it really take a play or two to get some of these things down.
Replayability
I've played it 8 times in the past 6 months and I'm enjoying it. I'm not playing super often, but it still finds table time every so often. If you play every game with 4 players, you use all the decks, so that could get old fast. I've played all the decks at this point, but I haven't played every combination, or even seen every combination. Each deck combination really does feel different, and presents unique challenges.
Why I like Smash Up
It's a fun and random game. There's a lot of variety with the different decks, and a lot of back and forth. The game strikes a good balance between messing with people but not destroying all their plans. There's a natural balance built in because players will start ganging up against whoever is ahead.
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| Discard and draw deck |
Why I don't like Smash Up
The game can often take longer than I feel it should. It's not that the end drags on, it's more that the start of the game takes a long time, then some bases score, then it takes a long time for more to score. This is probably still a feature of new players, but it's a pattern I'm seeing repeatedly, and it makes me a little weary.
The game can often take longer than I feel it should. It's not that the end drags on, it's more that the start of the game takes a long time, then some bases score, then it takes a long time for more to score. This is probably still a feature of new players, but it's a pattern I'm seeing repeatedly, and it makes me a little weary.
Overall
I like Smash Up but I don't love it. I enjoy playing it, but it's probably never going to be in my Top 42. It has a lot of room for expansions, which is great for variety, but it can also result in a power creep. I'm not planning on getting rid of Smash Up any time soon, but it wouldn't surprise me if I got rid of it at some point.
Would it be a good game for Tabletop?
I think it could be interesting on Tabletop, but I don't know that it would be a big enough hit. There's intrigue in the game, and several moments of tension, but a lot of the game is played in the heads of the players, which is why Dominion will never be on Tabletop.
Want to buy the game? Here's a link to Amazon, and you'll help support BoBG.
Would it be a good game for Tabletop?
I think it could be interesting on Tabletop, but I don't know that it would be a big enough hit. There's intrigue in the game, and several moments of tension, but a lot of the game is played in the heads of the players, which is why Dominion will never be on Tabletop.
