Smash Up @ EGX 2016

Smash Up, a card game that has always been a perfect solution to the arguments of extremely geeky conviction: who beats who in a fight – Aliens or Wizards? Dinosaurs or Zombies? And what would happen if you combined two together to make Zombie Dinosaurs fight Pirate Ninjas? Even if you haven’t been wondering who would win before, I bet you are now! It is fun, silly, competitive and very soon, you won’t need to to carry around a box full of cards because Nomad Games are bringing the digital version of Smash Up to IOS, Android and PC.

• Developer: Nomad Games
• Publisher: Nomad Games
• Reviewed on: PC
• Also Available On: IOS and Android
• Release Date: Coming to Early Access in October

If you are new to Smash Up, this is how it works: there are decks for every faction (Pirates, Ninjas, Zombies, Dinosaurs and more), each one of them has a unique play style that corresponds to the nature of its characters. Zombies are good at bringing back cards from the discard pile, so bringing them back to life… kind of. Ninja’s have sneaky powers that mess with your opponents. Dinosaurs are big and have high value cards. You get the idea. At the beginning of the game each player gets to choose two factions to mix, or smash up, together in one deck, taking advantage of the special powers of both those character sets. Want to have sneaky attacks while having a good control over you current and discard decks? Zombie Ninjas coming right up!
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Players use the cards from their decks to fight for control of outposts in order to gain victory points. The first player to get over 15 points gets to wear the crown of smugness and to know that their monsters are the king of the hill. The rules of the game are very simple, and, its crown jewel is the interaction between the different factions. Every one of them has their advantages and disadvantages, navigating which sucessfuly is important to succeed in the game.
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The digital version of Smash Up is a very faithful representation of its physical namesake. Everything from the original game has been maintained and loving transferred to the screen of your preferred device. UI is clear and easy to grasp, although some stages of action cards could be better signposted. However, even if you were not familiar with the game before, you will pick it up in no time at all. The cards in your hand are located at the bottom of the screen, and their abilities are revealed when the mouse hovers over a particular card, enlarging both the text and the image. When not hovering over the cards, its abilities are not displayed, but experienced players will be able to recognise the cards by their artwork.
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I have thoroughly enjoyed my playthrough of Smash Up at EGX.  The build will be coming to Steam Early Access next month, so there are still some details to be ironed out and perfected, but even now it looks quite polished. Even the feedback that I gave back to the developers on the day, was a nit pick of an already good looking game.
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The base game is free and comes with three factions decks, with paid expansions with more decks coming at a later date. Unlike the expansions for the physical game, which come with set number of new decks and factions, in the digital version, players can choose exactly which faction they want. Nomad Games will also be considering releasing new decks digitally ahead of physical cards, as they have done previously with Talisman – another game that they brought to the digital format. Geeks faction will be the first expansion to make it to Smash Up, once it is released.
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Smash Up will be cross play between all platforms, with local multiplayer, online multiplayer and battles against AI available for up 4 players. The game will come with a ‘Tutorial’ and ‘Review’ modes to help players to learn the game. There will be also Achievements and Leader Boards for the competitively spirited.
Official Game Site

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