Board Game Reviews Ep #130: 4 DIFFERENT SMASH UP EXPANSIONS

This board game was sent to me by AEG:

Smash Up expansions on BoardGameGeek:

Jay's Twitter:

[contheanimator]

Smash up is such a fun game to play. Each expansion brings something new to the table. I especially like how they add little secrets to some of the factions. An example being that all the Giant ants action card names are based on Queen songs.

[Leonix]

Love Smash Up, one of my favorite home games.

[empoleonmaster]

As someone who owns every single smash up expansion I am so glad you're bringing attention to it. It's a really fun card game with a very reasonable price point, once someone has and brings all the expansions, that means every person in the gathering has all the cards, there is no "I got lucky and pulled a $50+ card". There's only, "I bought an expansion with some amazing factions (half decks) in them that go well with some other factions in another expansion.
As a broke university student I truly wish this game got more attention because it's so well balanced price wise and game play wise.

Thank you for covering this.

[FatherTime]

If you want to get into Smash Up I suggest your first expansion should be It's Your Fault. It has Sharks, Mythic Greeks, Dragons and Superheroes (plus a surprise 5th faction) and they're all pretty good quality.

[rowanbrown]

Ghost Zombies is an amazing combo btw, ghosts discard your hand and zombies play from the discard

[sageoffer]

I know it’s a little late, but that card that Jay was talking about, that stops a base from scoring for one round, is in the Time Travelers deck, not Cyborg Apes.

[TazTheYellow]

Oh hey, I love Smash Up. It's really fun when you can find factions that synergize well with each other, but even the general conceit of "pick 2; go nuts" is pretty fundamentally appealing, and means that one won't necessarily get bored of this game for some time. Basically the perfect game to crack open for when you don't know which game you want to crack open. Having a consistent play group to break this out with is also ideal, as some factions are very clearly over-tuned on their own, so being able to have some house bans in play can definitely help everyone have a good time. This goes without saying but, the more factions you have to choose from, the merrier, so I do highly recommend picking up the base game on top of whatever special interest expansion that might catch your eye, just for that many more factions to combine those special interests with. Bear Cavalry with Garden Gnomes? Maybe Vampires with Zombies? Why not, knock yourself out!

[Gorbgorbenson]

The expansions are dope af. We have a fuckload of them. It's great.

[ashtongaskill]

I feel like the base game needs the Awesome 3000 expansion to feel balanced across the decks, and I found the Monster expansion's power tokens made the game too cluttered, but it's a fun game overall for sure.

[eduardoramirezjr]

Smash Up is amazing, the only issue i have ever had with the expansions is the Madness Counters on the Cthulu Set.

[PKLucky]

nice to see you review smash up! my brother and i played this all the time and he'd beat me 90% of the time lol but yeah fun game

[dulldusk]

The only thing that would make this review more awesome than it is...is if the cards were eatable.

[Paragon]

Sakurai’s rooting in the bottom of the barrel with Fighter Pass 3.

[noreviewplaythrough]

The Marvel edition is our new favorite right now.

[casualwoomy]

For a split second I thought this was a smash 4 review

[rickmore]

To everyone who is reading this, i hope you're doing good during the pandemics :)

[nameu]

Steampunks are one of my favorite factions. Their focus on base actions combined with ridiculously strong actions like Rotary Slug Thrower and Accromotive make them super fun to play. I also really like Awesome Level 9000 in general because it comes with 4 totally different factions, as opposed to the others where they all kind of have the same theme

[labyrinthwomb]

I love Pretty Pretty! It's my favorite out of the 4 expansions shown. I don't find it to be parody, except in the avoiding copyright sense (eg. Princess Apricot instead of Princess Peach) which I think is cute. Each faction has it's own favorite mechanic - Princesses have fewer, but powerful minions, Cats take control and destroy their own, Mythic Horses are powered up when they are together, Fairies are a support deck with lots of options because they are mercurial. The Fairies are little weaker, but the the other 3 factions are 10/10 in my book. I don't find the expansion to be insincere at all!

[rowanbrown]

Fun fact, Giant Ants are mostly Queen references

[crunchybanana]

“Wow look at all that smash” ProZD 2021