SMASH - An In-Depth Review

If you think you're a badass because you PVP in KaW - you're not.

SMASH delivers in all the right places, and dare I say it, even outpaces KaW in all the important ways.

What I Love About SMASH

• Game balance
  
  The medal system ensures you are matched against similar-sized players. Hitting people slightly smaller than you is expensive.
  
  
• Nonstop PVP action but only when you feel like it.
  
  You get a 2-hour shield if you get hit 4 times before you hit back. This protects you while you're asleep or too busy to constantly check your phone. This works great for a busy guy like me who can't afford to babysit his phone 24/7.
  
  There are also nonstop events with small rewards that happen over the course of a few hours to a few days.
  
  In general, SMASH does a MUCH better job of keeping you well-entertained, even if you are a very busy person, all while maintaining the excitement of competitiveness. And there's no real loss for long-term breaks away from the game, which is pretty much impossible in KaW.
  
  
• No strips.
  
  There's basically no open assets, like allies, in SMASH, so there's nothing to strip. There is gold, but a certain amount is automatically shielded and the rest can be plundered by enemies.
  
  
• Theres always something to do.
  
  They have experiments to grow your monsters and increase your strength. You have a city to manage that can be damaged and repaired and upgraded. Several build options.
  
  
• Wildcard search
  
  Can't remember the guy's name who hit you but remember he had a G in it? Well, unlike in KaW, you can search for all names that have a G. This makes finding people WAY easier.
  
  
• The help menu is actually helpful. Almost everything in the game is explained in their help menu.
  
  
• Anonymous mods.
  
  Mods don't get a green name, and I don't think they're supposed to tell you who they are.

What I Am Not A Fan Of

• Their forum isn't nearly as active as ours, but they have an epic selfie thread, and I even spotted Willy there.
  
  
• The learning curve is daunting.
  
  It took me almost a week to figure out just the basics. Then I started learning about monsters. Upgrading monsters is very complicated.
  
  There's also very little information about monsters and upgrading them. You're kind of on your own in figuring this out unless you spend lots of time browsing the forum for tips.
  
  If I were a dev, rather than making the upgrade process so complicated, I would have given simple features/abilities for each monster that could be added for a fee. That's kind of how it works now, except you don't get to choose the abilities and the items you need to upgrade monsters are rare and not made clear at the start of the game.
  
  I'm the type that prefers to make decisions based on having all the relevant information. SMASH definitely doesn't deliver on that, instead leaving your decisions up to chance.
  
  
• There's not really much of a clan page.

What I think is both good AND bad about SMASH.

• Requires your undivided attention
  
  Unlike KaW, you have to actually THINK and make decisions in SMASH. You can't just mindlessly grind through EBs and grow. You have to select targets and monsters carefully. You have to plan out your attacks carefully to make sure you earn medals and keep from losing battles and wasting energy. You have to make sure you use the right experiment and monster combinations, else you'll get stuck without the monster you need for a battle, or you'll pick the wrong monster and get it tied up in an experiment 2 hours longer than it would have had you chosen the right monster.

Summary

You should give smash a try. It took me about a month before I figured most stuff out, so don't lose your patience if you don't figure it out right away.

The best part about SMASH is that it is fair and the amount of action you get really depends on how active you are, so unlike KaW, it works with your schedule.

I'll always love KaW first, but if I picked up KaW and SMASH for the first time today, I'd delete KaW and stick with SMASH.

 

Fortunately, SMASH hasn't yet been infected by trolls. Their forum is a really positive and welcoming place.

I'm still new, so I am not yet aware of the politics of the game, including which clans/alliances are notable.

By the way, they call clans "Factions," and players are "Agents."

I couldn't even tell you which clan I'm in because I don't talk to them much because I'm so tied up with learning the game.

I don't see a need for alliances forming because strips don't exist. And farming isn't really feasible without spending truckloads of real cash.

The devs really designed the game to keep people on level playing field, which is my favorite part of the game, by far.

 

I don't understand the reason for your post other than you suggesting that SMASH is a game for kids, not adults.

If I'm right, I'll remind you that SMASH and KaW both share a 9 plus age rating.

 

I hope they don't make it pay to win. It's perfectly balanced now and I like it a lot.

If they change the matchup system, I guarantee I'll drop SMASH like a bad habit.

 

Great YouTube channel!

 

Thousands of people beg to differ.

 

Thanks, pipe! 

 

I don't recall seeing an in depth review yet.

If someone posted one before me, I'm sorry, but I missed it.