Pretty Pretty Smash Up Expansion - Board Game, Card Game, Princesses, Kittens and more, 2 to 4 Players, 30 to 45 Minute Play Time, for Ages 10 and Up, Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG)

I just got this expansion, and have only played it once, but I already love it, and think it will be a great addition to my collection. The second and forth expansions added new mechanics that made them feel slightly out of place when combining with other decks (Madness in the Cthulhu expansion and, to a lesser extent, Power Tokens in Monster Smash), but this one joins the first and third expansions in being unique additions that don't require any changes in core gameplay. As a result, they are, once again, fresh and fun additions to the Smash-Up experience. Here's a short run-down of each faction, as I have experienced them so far (I've looked through them all, and played a game with all 4, but only personally played with Princesses and Fairies as of writing this, so my take on them might be slightly inaccurate. I may update this review later if I play the latter two factions):- Princesses: My favorite, so far. This faction is unique in that there are probably only about 6 minions in it total, but every one of them is a unique 5-power princess based on various fairy-tale classics (several with altered names, presumably because Disney owns them). Examples include Sleeping Beauty, who shuffles back into the deck when discarded, Snow White, who can pull a minion to her once per turn, and Eliza (based on Elsa from Frozen), who prevents other players from playing more than one extra card per turn. Every Princess has a useful ability, and the rest of the deck is actions that allow for some clever tricks, like moving all of your minions at once, or forcing a minion away from a scoring base.- Fairies: A deck whose main gimmick, as best as I can describe it, is that practically every card has two effect options for you to choose from, making them rather versatile. For example, a minion's ability might be something like "Play an extra Action OR Draw a card", and one action, played on a base, either increases or decreases the power of all minions there by 1 while in effect. Other cards only have one option, but can still be really useful and flexible in their use, like the 2-powered minion's one-time ability to steal an action played on another. I found myself using this for things like stealing an opposing minion's buff, or taking a detrimental action off of one of my stronger minions. The choices lend themselves well to varying strategies, which keeps things fresh and interesting.- Mythic Horses: A deck based roughly on My Little Pony, whose main gimmick is "friendship". Most minions and actions have a special ability that activates when your minions are together in greater numbers. For example, there is a buff that gives a minion extra power for each other minion you have at the same base, and there's a horse minion that allows you to play an extra minion only if you play it on a base you already occupy. It makes for cumulative effects similar to those found in decks like Robots, where there is great strength in numbers.- Kitty Cats: A deck that's clever, funny, and powerful, all at the same time. This is the type of deck that really emphasizes the game creator's genius ability to make each faction really FEEL like it should. Cats are playful and adorable, but also menacing and manipulative. A couple cards let you temporarily take control of your opponents' smaller minions (either once, or once per turn, as with the strongest cat in the deck), and a couple cards let you destroy your own minions in order to get an effect, like playing another. Couple this with certain actions and a new cat base that let you move cats instead of discarding them when they're destroyed, and you can have a pretty powerful strategy of moving minions around and playing extras. There are also, of course, a few internet memes thrown in, for some extra laughs.In addition to these great new factions, the expansion comes with 4 dividers for use in the Big Geeky Box, which was a big relief to me, since their inclusion was really the only way for the BGB to maintain its usefulness after the expansions it already accounted for (I have an extensive review of the box on the Amazon page for it, if anyone is interested in it). Overall I am really happy with yet another great Smash-Up expansion. I am glad that AEG is both trying new things and sticking to the formula for every other expansion, and am pleased that this one will feel right at home being played with the rest of my collection.Oh, and obviously if you can't get over the fact that this is called "Pretty Pretty Smash Up" and is filled with stereotypically feminine things, you probably won't like this, and should grow up a little.UPDATE: So I've played with the expansion a few times now, but the random nature with which I play with friends has resulted in me still not having played as Mythic Horses or Kitty Cats. A few new things I've noticed so far, though:- The stacking nature of Mythic Horse's friendship abilities can yield ridiculous results. My friend played Robot Horses, and with several stacking abilities increasing the power of each of his minions, he was able to get something like 40 power on a single base when it scored. That's insane.- Fairies are kindof terrible to Cyborg Apes, since the 2-power fairy can steal card buffs from other minions, and a lot of the Apes' power is derived from buff actions.

Very solid addition to the game at large and a great return to form on faction design and unique-but-plausible-for-the-race flavor. I can't compare to the Cthulhu (don't have it), but with the rest of them it fits nicely and plays well with the existing factions. I should preface this with the information that I really like having factions that play as you would think the faction should. (i.e. Zombies resurrect from the discard, Plants "grow" into something bigger when left alone) Other expansions all seem to have a few niggling issues, generally around one or more factions that don't live up to the quality of the others, but this one I can't think of one thing that really stands out as annoying. This is a must-buy outside of the original game.Where Monster smash tried to add a new global mechanic with counters, this one stays away from that trap and has 4 factions that are unique, fun and mesh with existing rules. Mythic Horses stack power very quickly when with friendly minions, Fairies have unique actions that have a "do this OR that" mechanic to lend different strategies depending on the moment, Princesses are the only faction since the original Robots to have a non-balanced action vs minion count that definitely lets you play different. Personally I like the lesser but powerful minions with more "mess up the world" actions as a different strategy. Kitty Cats are... um, well they're the weakest IMO of the 4, but that's not to say they're not fun. The others are actually so much fun that Cats, though lesser than the others in this pack are still as good as the better ones from other expansions. They have a lot of enemy minion control that is quite frustrating (in a very fun way) when playing against them.Among others, I play Smash Up with my Wife, 9 year old daughter and 12 year old son and they love it, my daughter really got after this expansion and while she's still quite fond of Dinosaurs and Cyborg Apes, the Horses and Princesses have pretty much become her first choices during play.Last note: I have the big geeky box, which has nice dividers for each faction. This expansion has dividers that fit that same set and they work great.

Great expansion for base game

This is a fun addition to Smash Up. The princesses pack a serious punch!

It's hard to say this definitively, because I love how all the expansions work as one big whole, but if I had to pick one expansion I'd be hard-pressed to forsake Pretty Pretty. Not only are all the factions interesting and powerful, they tend to work really well with other combos. It's rare I don't have a pretty pretty faction in one of my combos as it's just so much fun to beat people up with little pink cards.Mythic Horses are a great, powerful deck that goes well with anything. Kitty Cats are tricksters done right and really ham up with thematic element with a bunch of cat memes and jokes. Fairies have their moments and princesses are unique in that all their minions are power 5 -- they only have 6 total, though. Really shakes things up.Highly recommended.

Todo super bien empaquetado y en perfecto estado

Muy buena ampliación, trae cartas muy tochas y muy bien nivelada. Combinan muy bien con el resto de facciones.El único pero es el exceso de rosa ;)

Excelente mecánica de juego, aporta mas velocidad con sus barajas nuevas, además de las habilidades nuevas que se introdujeron en el juego.

As a girly nerd, this is probably one of my favourite expansions. I love the cats, the art work is great, and there's a lot of humour in the princesses faction. Really adds to the game - the cats are the only one I've seen that take control of other players; the fairies are one of the few factions to mess with other people; the princesses are powerful and action-heavy; the horses are another really good swarmer faction. Love it!

I bought this to add to the "big geeky box" smash up game. It is a perfect addition, the new units have good differences in strengths and weakness compared to the core card sets and that really change how the player uses the cards. It also comes with VP counters, that are handy for keeping track of how the game is going.Overall a great addition.