This is more of a board game accessory rather than a board game itself. It’s to be used in conjunction with the game Smash Up. For those of you who don’t know, it’s basically a card game in which you take control of two decks of cards representing different factions and smash them together, creating combinations like Alien Dinosaurs, Robot Wizards, Pirate Zombies and much, much more. If you want a more comprehensive overview I have reviewed it so you can check that out on my Board Game Reviews page. Since its release, there have been four expansions produced, with a fifth on the way in November I believe. These come out in smaller boxes, but combining them in the original box is a challenge so now AEG have released The Big Geeky Box to provide ample storage. How much is ample? Check this out.
Evidently they plan to release many more expansions, and it’ll be a long while until I fill this box up! I currently have all but one expansion, but there will still be plenty of room even if I get that one. The box comes with foam inserts to help keep things stable, some awesome plastic dividers, and a bonus Geek & Sundry faction.
I wasn’t going to get all the plastic dividers out so I’m showing you the ones that I’m not using. You can’t tell from this but they’re made from sturdy plastic that doesn’t bend easily. They’re double sided and fit in the box perfectly, so it’s easy to flick through and pick out which factions you want to use. The artwork on them is cool, and there’s a separate divider for bases as well. And don’t worry, AEG have announced that all future expansions will come with these dividers included!
These are the cards for the Geek & Sundry faction, and their locations. If you’re unaware of who/what Geek & Sundry is, it’s a company that produce various video series for YouTube, most notably Tabletop, a show where Wil Wheaton plays board games with his celebrity friends. If you haven’t seen it I’d urge you to check it out because it’s a lot of fun. And then you can actually play at the Tabletop location with Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day.
So what do I think? Overall I love this box. It’s really sturdy and the walls of the compartments run all the way up to the rim of the box, meaning that it’s very difficult for things to slide over when you’re carrying the box around. The dividers are of the highest quality and I absolutely love them. I do wish they had included a little box or compartment to keep the power tokens in. I’ll probably end up getting a ziplock bag and just lift that out whenever I’m playing, but it would have been nice to have a corner of the box set aside for the power tokens, just to keep them together. Most importantly however, it shows that AEG are committed to the game and I’m intrigued to see how long it will take for this box to get full, or how full it will be by the time the Smash Up expansions end.
But I think the question you have to ask yourself is do you actually need this now? Because that’s the thing, there is so much space that at the moment you probably can get by with using the existing boxes, which would be easier for transportation as well, as this is quite a hefty box. Furthermore, as well as this box representing AEG being committed to the game it’s actually a clever marketing ploy because in buying this box you’re committing to the game as well, because really, who wants a mostly-empty box sitting on their shelf?
In my case I actually received this as a birthday present, and in all honesty I don’t think I would have bought it myself. Having said that, I do enjoy it and while I don’t think it’s necessary to get I do think it’s a nice thing to have. And really, while I wait for the other expansions to come out I can even store some smaller games in there and carry them around with me. But if you’re reading this you might be a completionist and want the box not just for the storage capability or the dividers, but for the new faction as well.
I am a fan of Tabletop so I liked the cameo appearance of Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day, but to people who aren’t aware of them this bonus faction might seem a little odd. They also feel out of place, because so far the factions included have all been things out of fantasy or fiction (even the Dinosaurs have lasers attached to them) yet now we actually have real people in the game. It seems at odds with the theme but then again Smash Up has always been quite chaotic and ridiculous, so it’s not off-putting to me but other people may not like it. As for how they play, they have some quite interesting mechanics. There are a lot of cards that allow you to counter and cancel other players’ actions immediately, so it can bring a level of frustration to your opponents (and glee to you). Off the top of my head I can’t think of any other factions that have the ability to scupper other people’s plans like that, so as a result there aren’t any cards you can use to counter these action-cancelling cards, although perhaps we’ll see more of this type of thing in the future.
And, as always, if you don’t like that aspect then you can just leave them out of your games. They’re not one of my preferred factions and I do prefer sticking to the ‘main’ ones, but I’ll probably always include the Geeks in my random draws.
So that is Smash Up: The Big Geeky Box. I’m glad that I received it as a present. It’s really sturdy and I can see it lasting a long time. The dividers are great so if you are committed to the game and know that you’ll be getting most, if not all, expansions then I think it’s worth getting. I don’t actually know how many of these AEG are going to make, so that might be something to bear in mind as well.