Smash Up: Marvel

Game Info

Year

2021

Collection

Ratings

Creator Score

Expansions & Family

Mechanic profile

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Vibe profile

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Description

The "shufflebuilding" game Smash Up begins with a simple premise: take the 20-card decks of two factions, shuffle them into a deck of forty cards, then compete to crush more bases than your opponents! Each faction involves a different gaming mechanism, and each combination of factions brings a different gaming experience.

In Smash Up: Marvel, players smash up two groups of Marvel characters, such as the vigilant members of The Ultimates or the criminal masterminds HYDRA, to take over bases and score the most victory points. Mix and match the different decks of heroes and villains to see which combinations can best defeat the others! This game allows for fans to create stories that have never existed in the Marvel universe. What combo will you choose?

Smash Up: Marvel - Discussion

Board Games Unlocked Aug 24, 2026

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All mentions

Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.

Total mentions: 2

This page: 2

Sentiment: pos 2 · mix 0 · neu 0 · neg 0

Showing 1–2 of 2

Video gC0Yp3vPSRo Board Games UnLocked Review at 0:18 sentiment: positive

video_pk 115722 · mention_pk 328727

Click to watch at 0:18 · YouTube ↗

Overall sentiment (raw)

positive

Pros

Fun and good gameplay
Does a good job encapsulating the Marvel theme
Standalone core set, no prior ownership needed
Actual drawn art for factions
Informative dividers with faction descriptions and complexity ratings
Unique playstyles for many factions
Easy to combine with other Smash Up sets
Factions feel thematic
The complexity rating on dividers helps new players
Many factions offer interesting combos and strategies

Cons

Expected it to be bad like Smash Up Munchkin
Some factions might be 'slow' (Avengers)
The complexity rating might deter some players from trying higher complexity factions
The Masters of Evil are a 'weak' deck on their own but shine in combinations
The difficulty rating for Masters of Evil is high, and it's noted they need to be paired with other factions to maximize VP generation.

Thematic elements

Encapsulating Marvel within the Smash Up universe
Marvel universe

Comparison games

Smash Up Munchkin
Power Rangers
Pokemon
Transformers
Robots (Smash Up faction)
Cthulhu factions (Smash Up)
Aliens (Smash Up faction)
Innsmouth (Smash Up faction)

Mechanics (from transcript analysis)

Area Control — The core gameplay loop involves competing for 'bases' and scoring them.
Base Modifiers — Cards that alter the scoring or break points of bases are discussed.
Card Play — Many abilities are tied to playing character cards and action cards.
character abilities — Each character has unique talents and powers that influence gameplay.
Deck Building — Implied through the discussion of shuffling decks, drawing cards, and cycling through discarded cards.
Destruction/Re-use — Factions like Hydra benefit from character destruction, while others focus on returning characters to play or the deck.
faction synergy — The reviewer frequently discusses how characters and cards within a faction work together.
Movement — Several factions, like the Ultimates, focus on moving characters between bases.
Victory point accumulation — The Masters of Evil faction specifically focuses on alternative methods of gaining victory points beyond base scoring.

Video topics + discussion points

No key topics recorded for this video.

Quotes (from this video)

I was skeptically curious about this one because the last time that Smash Up did like an IP for their games... it was a disaster because Smash Up Munchkin is a game that everyone has but no one ever actually plays because it's just genuinely bad and shouldn't be really included in Smash Up.
And I gotta say, this is not that. This is not the case for Smash Up Marvel because it is fun. It is so good.
And the fact that the very bottom it shows you the complexity of that faction. That is so smart.
So they are all about spreading out and then move it together get to get really powerful, which is great because normally you don't want to spread too thin with all the bases because you'll be slow to actually you know, score.
The Sinister Six love to prey on weakness. They have many ways to make bases weak and get many benefits from weaker bases.
The Masters of Evil seek to control the world through any means. In addition to the VP rewards from bases, they've developed alternate methods of getting victory points.
On a scale of one to ten, I am going to give this a 9.
I expected it to be so shitty like Munchkin... this is not going to work... you can easily combine it with other factions.

References (from this video)

No references stored for this video.

Video M5Xc5jGnsYk Watch It Played News at 1:02 sentiment: positive

video_pk 90872 · mention_pk 243302

Click to watch at 1:02 · YouTube ↗