New Game Round-up: Smash Up Pretties Up, Kwanzaa Gets Fêted (Sort Of) & Mars Gets Remade

Think only pirates, time travelers, vampires and bears can smash bases? Well, get ready to be taught a lesson — in the nicest way possible!

Pretty Pretty Smash Up brings the sweetest factions ever to the vicious fight for victory! Kitty Cats use their incredible cuteness to take control of enemy minions. Princesses ply their royalty, beauty and even their love to get their way. Fairies' fickle tricks give you options like never before, while the herds of Mythic Horses work together for dominance. Get ready — your opponents will never know what hit them!

In the 2400s, mankind begins to terraform the planet Mars. Giant corporations, sponsored by the World Government on Earth, initiate huge projects to raise the temperature, the oxygen level, and the ocean coverage until the environment is habitable.

In Terraforming Mars, you play one of those corporations and work together in the terraforming process, but compete for victory points that are awarded not only for your contribution to the terraforming, but also for advancing human infrastructure throughout the solar systems and doing other commendable things.

The players acquire unique project cards (with over two hundred in the game) which can represent introducing plant life or animals, hurling asteroids at the surface, mining the moons of Jupiter, establishing greenhouse gas industries to heat up the atmosphere and much more. The cards can give you immediate bonuses in addition to increasing your production of different resources, but many cards become playable only when the temperature, oxygen, or ocean coverage increases enough.

At the start of the game each player chooses a hero with a fixed deck of equipment and power cards, before embarking on a dangerous journey through a set of monster-ridden locations. Each hero also comes with a pool of advanced abilities that can be added to their basic deck during the game to customize and expand their powers.

A variable board set-up, randomized encounters and enemies, a simple but robust monster AI – all that makes for a game that is a varied and challenging experience both solitaire as well as with a group of up to three friends. Gather up your resolve, check your gear and get ready to brave the unrelenting Mists. A world of perilous adventures awaits!