Because only playing the games was too easy and mainstream for me I decided to go all out and do a fan expansion.
This one is also not counted for the 2015 goal since its in my collection and play list for a long time already.
Super Mario Bros – Power UP!
Components
The box itself is nothing special, the game is after all a cheap one. Inside it have a spacer, so the cards and token doesn’t fly around in the box during transport which is a plus.
Cards are ok, good thickness (2.7-3.0mm), standard size. You will want to sleeve them since the rotation is quite big especially if you play in a bigger group.
Additionally there are only life cardboard tokens, they are ok, nothing bad nothing good can be said about them.
Set-up
Give every player their 4 life tokens, shuffle the deck and deal each player one level card and one ? block card. It doesn’t get any faster that this and you can do all of those things in parallel.
Rules
As simple as in exploding kittens. ? block deck cards have rules explained on them (in which phase you can use them), the rest is just pure luck.
Gameplay
10-30 minutes apparently but you could just write 5-50 and it would still be true. It simply depends on the number of players since the number of rounds is always 4 times to number of players minus one to three and how fast can you draw and swap cards with others.
There are two phases during which you can play your ? block cards, first while trading always with person next to you (unless they have a castle and you are blocked to your sorry card). Second after reveal where you simply don’t want to have the lowest number. I have mixed feelings about the rule that makes only the card on top count, because it usually promotes the player that goes second in the duel (unless other players intervene).
It’s 3-8 player game, and actually the more the merrier in my opinion in this game. More cards are drawn meaning more interaction can be done. Of course the level trading phase is a bit longer, so the downtime rises, however the reveal phase is a pure chaotic fun with more players that makes this easily to forget.
Expansion
As I mentioned at the start we played this game a lot, and I mean it. Since it was a quick to set up, quick to learn the rules, it became a standard one, especially in the work environment, when some people couldn’t stay too long. This meant we were already aware of all of the problems this game presents, like the mentioned ‘runaway leader’ problem, with which I wanted to do something to keep enjoying it.
The process:
For me the main reason the game was becoming less and less enjoyable was this game version of runaway leader. No one wanted to target player with lots of cards unless you had to since it wasn’t profitable and there was rarely a synergy between players in this department. The other aspect that also needed a correction was the high dependency on luck, of course this was a bit of the charm of this game, however there should’ve been more ways to mitigate it. With those two points in mind I started brainstorming the cards, while also keeping Mario theme in mind. The first things that weren’t used in the base game and that popped out were the “worlds” and the power ups. Since we could say that “all” of the worlds” from the basic game were used I decided the expansion will be based on the game series instead of the first one. This is how the first expansion was created – “Coins and Worlds”.
Coins and Worlds
This expansion add coin tokens, more level cards and also the Worlds cards. Adds the most cards and rules from all of the expansions and also some tokens, which in my case were 3d printed. World cards are there to help you gather coins and force some interaction. Coins help in winning the fights, they can be traded between players for favors or used to buy lives.
Power up!
This expansion add power ups to the players, which are basically abilities that can be used until the power is lost – usually by loosing the round. Basically you can think of those like of a free life and ? block, that can be used every X turns based on the card. This means you want to protect them as long as possible when your opponents should target them as early as possible.
Wonder Time
This expansion add the Wonder cards. Those are used as a modifier for the next round to add more chaos or possibilities for the players. Some of them can be game breaking so consider yourself warned.
Items, items, items.
This expansion add a bunch of ? blocks to the game that are also connected to the other expansions. No new rules are added with this one, however that are many new effects in the cards that can change the flow of both phases in the game.
Mini expansion – Super cards
This expansion add few special cards to the level card stack allowing for some new actions during the draw phase. This expansion aim is to lower to add new ways to try and fight with the luck factor on the cards that are delt to each player
Mini expansion – Stack time
This expansion add a bunch of ? blocks that have a new special rule. Instead of covering and overriding the effect of the top card played on a player, their value is based on the number of cards below them, meaning they are stronger the later they are played.
Files to download:
All files are available on my google drive. There are .xcf files if you would like to modify the cards or correct them and ready to print pdf file. Detailed rule book for all of the expansions is also there.
There will also be additional YT video on the whole process of creating this expansion. After it’s released I will update this post.
Score
- Overall 8/10- quick good warm up game, that’s usually a “one more round” game
- Coming back 10/10 – It’s a joy to play a round or two, quick for new players which is way I would always suggest it. Expansion added new layers to the game and at least for now it is even more fun.
- Fun factor 8/10 – I hate luck based games, because I suck at them. However, for this one I will make an exception since the possible fun chaos that can happen here is actually quite fun.
Will it stay or go? – Of course since it’s a good starting game it’s a stay, otherwise why bothering creating a fan expansion for it.
