Stats:
No. of players: 2-4
Amount of time to play: 45-60 min
Age requirements: 12+
Set-up time: 5 minutes

Smash Up Rules Description:

Smash Up is card game with eight meme factions. You take two factions to play and shuffle them together to form your deck. Each turn you play minions to takeover bases. Once a base reaches its tipping point it scores. The first player to fifteen points wins.

The eight memes are aliens, dinosaurs, ninjas, pirates, robots, tricksters, wizards and zombies. Smash Up factions are made up of two types of cards, minions and actions. There are also bases, but none of them will be in your deck. To start you place one base per player plus one extra.

On your turn you may play one minion and one action card in any order. Minions have a power score and each base has a breakpoint number. Once the total power of all minions on a base equals or exceeds the breakpoint it scores. When a base scores the player with the most power gets the first place points, the player with the second most power gets the second place points and the player with the third most power scores the third place points. Next you draw two cards from your deck and discard down to ten.

Once a player gets to fifteen points they win.

Quick Review of Smash Up:

Smash Up is very fun, quick and easy to teach play. You can draft your favorite memes and fight for power over bases. The theme is great and the game play is solid too. You can play this game 10 minutes after getting it with gamers and non-gamers alike. It also caters to a variety of ages.

The components that are in the box are excellent. The artwork is simply fantastic and the rules are easy to follow and teach. You may run into a few situations you have to house rule but nothing too extreme. The big miss here (and maybe for the entire game) is the lack of a scoring mechanism. Make sure you have paper and pencil handy as there is no score tracker in the box.

The mechanics in Smash Up are pretty straightforward. You can read about each faction and what they do well in the rules. Just be aware there are some combinations that are stronger than others. And while not a brain burner there is an advantage to playing the right combos at the right time.

I have played this game with two to four players and think it plays best with three or four. Two is not a bad experience but the game is more fun with more players.

Smash Up is fun like its theme and is meant to be played that way. There will be some take that in this game as minions are moved or eliminated. If you are sensitive about getting messed with than this game may not be for you. If however you are looking for a game you can play with most anyone within minutes of sitting down at the table with them, Smash Up is for you. The wide appeal and variety offered in this game should make it fit in most anyone’s collection.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 3 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 6 out of 6
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 3 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6