Smash Up - The Card Game 9+

Personally I think they've done a great job porting this to an app. It take care of keeping track of base and player points while also prompting you when you can play a special action cards out of turn.

There were a few card selection issues when it first came out but these have mostly been fixed.

Looking forward to some new factions being released.

A surprisingly poor adaptation by Asmodee (whose games I normally love). Trying to select cards is atrociously bad - sometimes I can move back and forward with the tiniest movement of my finger and STILL not select the card I’m trying to get. The same thing happens when trying to select a card from a bunch on a base to play an action on. Often the action ends up on the wrong card, wasting a move. Then there’s the confounding inability to drag a card to a base - it’s such an ingrained action when using a touchscreen to press and drag that this omission catches me out every time. I keep unconsciously trying to do it & wondering what’s wrong when it doesn’t work. At other times, I can’t work out what’s going on as the opponent seems to be playing endless cards per turn, even when none seem to have an action allowing extra cards to be played. Utterly confusing, and I wish I hadn’t wasted my money. Sounds like a great game, but really doesn’t play like one on the iPad. It’s one I’m unlikely to play again.

The card version of Smash Up is a messy and chaotic (but fun!) game. The app version, in needing to impose order in its design, manages to lose the messiness, swaps chaos for frustration and unfortunately, just isn’t fun.

I’ve played the card game for years, but this app manages to make the gameplay really confusing. I would strongly suggest that the “Proceed” button’s default setting be ON at all times - otherwise things just happen to you and you have to check the game logs to know why. It slows the game down, but at least you have some sense about why things are happening.

All this aside, I honestly couldn’t suggest how to fundamentally restructure the design of the app. It’s a hard problem to solve, as the game usually sprawls across a table. I cannot imagine how anybody plays this on their phone - it’s a cramped experience on a 12.9” iPad.

I will continue to use this app to play-test faction combinations, but if I want to enjoy Smash Up!, I will turn to the card-based version.