AEG Smash Up: Monster Smash Expansion | Action-Packed Family Card Game | Giant Ants, Mad Scientists, Vampires, Werewolves | 2-4 Players | Ages 14+

This is the third expansion I bought for Smash Up (the first being Awesome Level 9000, and the second being Science Fiction Double Feature; I skipped Cthulu because I'm not really familiar with the source material). The great thing about the original is that there are so many possible combinations of factions, making each game different. The first great thing this expansion does is add 4 more factions, increasing the variability of the game. This expansion also introduces a new mechanic: power tokens. The physical tokens you use are just VP tokens, but they are placed on your minions (sometimes on your actions), and represent additional power. There have been factions in the base game and previous expansions that give minions extra power, but the tokens in Monster Smash can be added, subtracted, and moved around. How that plays out for each faction will be described below. Vampires: Going with the theme of vampires sucking your blood, Vampire minions can often gain power tokens by first destroying other minions. Mad Scientists: These minions like to experiment on others, so you'll often get cards that allow you to place power tokens on other minions. One minion can remove one of his power tokens in order to allow you to play an extra minion. So it kind of goes with the theme of using spare body parts to bring life to a new monster. Giant Ants: Many of these minions are weaker (they are ants, after all), but immediately after playing them you get to add power tokens to them. Some cards let you move tokens from one minion to another. And other cards make any of your minions with power tokens immune from other player's attacks. It makes them an unstoppable hoard of mutated insects. Side note about these - every action card in this faction is named after a Queen song, so you get actions like "Killer Queen" and "We Will Rock You". Werewolves: This is the only faction in the deck that doesn't use power tokens. The werewolves' strength comes in bursts. Some minions get an extra 2 power on the turn they are played. Others will get an extra 2 power only when the base scores. So it gives them the effect of having a wild, uncontrolled strengths. Because of all the additional power and power counters, we've found that the Monster Smash are a bit overpowered compared to the factions in the base game and other expansions. So when we randomly choose factions to play with, we either don't include monsters at all, or we first give each player a random monster faction, and then give a random non-monster faction. That way the game stays balanced. So while this expansion does seem to make the overall game unbalanced, we have found an easy way around any balance issues. So it's not really much of a negative. And it's far outweighed by the cool new factions and power counter mechanism. I would definitely recommend Smash Up: Monster Smash.

I am a huge fan of the Smash Up game and this expansion adds just that much more to the experience and replay value of the game. I think what is great is that if you are unsure about going all into Smash Up you can buy one of the expansion at a fraction of the cost and test the waters out. Alderac Games also has great customer service! If you own the base game I would say this is worth the buy and if you are just curious about Smash Up then even then it is worth the purchase. I play this game any chance I get with friends and family and enjoy the strategy and the endless possibilities new factions bring to the game. This game gives you four new factions that are monster themed and are really fun to play with. I own the "It's Your Fault" expansion as well and team the Vampires up with the Sharks for a strong team that just gets stronger as you destroy other players minions. I recommend Smash Up Monster Smash to anyone that enjoys the base games or anyone that loves Monsters.

This was purchased for a game we already have. It is an expansion pack/deck. The cards come nicely packaged. They are always nicely done and great quality. We purchase all the packs they come out with. This is an enjoyable game to play and lasts for a good amount of time where it isn't too long where you would get bored.

This expansion to Smash Up is definitely entertaining. I'm not sure I enjoy it as much as the Science Fiction Double Feature expansion, but that doesn't mean it isn't great. The new factions all have some very interesting mechanics that add to the flavor and diversity of the Smash Up range. The Giant Ants all work as workers/contributors to the hivemind and help pass power points (a new mechanic) around their team. The Werewolves are predictably powerful in certain instances (like a full moon, which is a card) and are powerful when they first enter the game. The Vampires are quite powerful in that they do considerable damage as well as can boost their own ranks by passing points to their teammates. And finally the Mad Scientists are a fun deck that allow you to juice up your minions with perks in order to claim victory. All in all - this is another great expansion and needs to be purchased if you are a big fan of this game.

ONE power token, ah ah ah! This expansion adds four strong factions to an already excellent game. Not only that, but it continues the humorous style of the base game and other expansions with characters we're probably all familiar with. The theme of this expansion is power tokens which add permanent (and visual) boosts to minion power. Here is a quick rundown of each faction: -Vampires: Get their power counters from the misfortune of others. Plays well with factions that kill minions. -Giant Ants: Spread the power counters around, "swarm" style. Plays well with factions that want a lot of minions out. -Mad Scientists: Plays ongoing actions to generate power counters or recycles cards that do. Plays well with nearly everyone. -Werewolves: The only group that doesn't use power counters. They have temporary power boosts instead. Play well with factions that are strong but focused. After playing a couple games it seems like these factions are very powerful when compared to the original ones. The Mad Scientists in particular go with nearly any other faction and generally does very well. The Werewolf faction can do very well but is best left for people who are willing to do constant math (more than everyone already is). Another note is that keeping track of who gets what token or how many can get hectic if more than two of these factions are being used. If you own the other expansions, I recommend each player using a different score counter for their own minions and using the base game's score tokens for points. For example, Susie uses the Cthulu tokens, Jimmy uses the Science Fiction tokens, and Alex uses the tokens that come with this expansion. On the flip side, these factions (except Werewolves) make it much easier to gauge which minions are strongest. Adding a minion's power to the number of chips on it is much simpler then adding the power with an action attached to it, then that minion does something and oh that guy has an action on the base but the base does....wait. Let me start over. Unfortunately it can also make your minions, should you play these factions, more visibly threatening. At a glance, 3 power tokens on a creature just looks scarier than one with an ability attached to it. Last, I would recommend that anyone new to Smash Up wait to play with this expansion until after the others. The expansions are becoming more and more "expert," in my opinion, meaning each faction is playable by anyone but only those already familiar with the game will make the best use of them. The Werewolf faction being the best example of this. If you want to buy an expansion to try out Smash Up, I would recommend Power Level 9000.

Going in, I only knew that each faction adds ways to give +1 counters to your minions. I thought they would all be generic and go well with pretty much any faction. However, each faction in this set actually has some personality that benefit from a specific playstyle. For example, Werewolves focus heavily on having the most power on a base through burst effects that end after the turn. This is much more interesting than just adding +1 power to anything. Everything came still in the original packaging and arrived within the delivery window. No damage was done to it and it was properly packaged in bubble wrap.

As a couple we love to play card games together, but it's always fun to bring in another couple for a game night and Smash Up is perfect for that! If you're a fan of Munchkin, or Magic the Gathering, this game is similar in that you play creature cards to gain points and you modify your creatures as needed. Its easy to teach, can be played as a two player game (with modified rules, we play to a higher point count and with only the 1st and 3rd place points when it's just the two of us), and its super addicting with all of the fun expansion packs. We highly recommend it!

Love this game ended up buying almost all of these add on's for The Bigger Geekier Box. You do end up spending a lot of money though to buy the whole set.