WBG Score: 9/10
Player Count: 2
You’ll like this if you like: Smash Up, Star Wars Destiny, Disney Sorcerer's Arena
Published by: Crab Studios
Designed by: Niall Crabtree
This is a free review copy. See our review policy here.
I previewed the base game here back in 2023 as it was being kickstarted. And safe to say that I love this game. I now have my hands on the first expansion which I will review here, and a preview copy of the second that will be covered in a separate piece. Head to my previous preview to get a gist of how the game works, setup, rules, and my thoughts. But in summary, this is a two-player card-playing fighting game where players battle it out to try and inflict five damage on their opponent first. Each character is completely different with their own set of special powers, unique traits, and cool cards. This expansion simply adds four more fighters to the game. It is all you want with a game like this. The base game is perfect. More fighters simply offer more variety, replayability, and fun! Let's get to it.
How To Set Up Fatal Knockout Oddities
Just like the base game, each player takes one character book, standee, player board, and set of cards. Take five damage tokens, one Meter token, and three burn tokens. Then set up the game area using the box as shown in the picture. Cool, isn't it? Just like an old arcade fighter from the 90s! Remove the ultra card from your deck and set it aside and then shuffle your remaining cards and place the deck onto your Draw pile. Take the top three cards to form your starting hand and place your standee onto the board two spaces away from your opponent. You are ready to play.
How To Play Fatal Knockout Oddities
The first player will now choose one of their three cards to play this round, placing it face up on the table. The other player now does the same. The first player can now, if they want, add a second card, played face down. But they do not have to. They can end it here if they wish. If they do play a second card, then the second player must do the same, placing it face down as well. Back to the first player who can again end the card play for this round or play a third card, again face down. In which case, the second player does the same. Now flip all cards played and order them into the initial order, shown on the top left of the cards. This is the order the cards will play out.
Players now run through their cards, taking all actions shown on the cards. This will be a combination of movement, fighting, and special powers. More on that later. Any damage inflicted must be immediately shown on your opponent's board by placing one of the damage tokens onto the damage slot. If anyone ever receives a fifth damage token, the game ends immediately.
Players take turns playing cards this way, drawing back up to three each time, until someone receives their fifth damage. You can use your burn tokens to place a card you do not want to use yet into the pocket space on the player board and draw another card from the draw pile. When you play cards with a green symbol in the top middle space, move your Meter marker along the Meter track. As you cross certain symbols, these will give you immediate benefits, such as extra burn tokens and shields. And when you reach the last space, you can take your Ultra card set aside during setup and add it to the bottom of your draw pile.
Is It Fun? Fatal Knockout Oddities Expansion Card Game Review
The four new characters added to this set are fantastic. Let's go through them one by one.
Neptune & Calico
An all-rounder fighter with fairly high strength, this character has the unique power to switch between their two forms. Neptune has high defence, whereas Calico offers more movement and ranged combat. Watch out for Calico's weak defence, though, where they die after three hits, not five!
When you play as this character, you can start as either Neptune or Calico, placing your chosen standee on the board and the other set aside by your player board. Certain cards allow you to change form as you choose. There are two decks, one for each character. Make sure you draw from the correct one as you change form. Both decks have their own Ultra card, one of which is acquired when you reach the final space on the Meter track. Make a choice between the two when you reach here.
When in the form of Neptune you have the bonus power to Fortify. This means you place a Fortify token below your standee, and your opponent now cannot move past you. This affect lasts until you take damage.
There is no Burn power with this character, just spaces for each of their own damage tokens. There is also a way you can move into Duo form using the Eject power. Now use the Standee with both characters shown. You can now use cards from both decks. You take damage to Neptune from the front and to Calico from the back. If Neptune ever receives five damage you don't die, but his character is gone and you now fight as Calico. If Calico dies, even if Neptune is still in the game you lose.
The changeable nature of the characters makes them feel incredibly unique. The lack of Burn tokens is made up for by the overall health of eight, but you do need to manage this carefully between the two. Especially when in the form of the weaker Calcio. Changing between the two mid-fight can be a lot of fun, and confusing for your opponent as your powers constantly alternate.
Dr. Viverra
Dr. Viverra does not fight themselves; instead, they use robots they control to do their dirty work. The Doctor is a very strong and versatile character but has low speed and defence.
The Doctor has four cards that allow it to spawn robots onto the battle stage with them. Controlling and Takeover below are two examples of this. The robots have their own health of one each. They take up space on the board just like the fighters. There is a maximum of two robots allowed at any one time.
Any action played with the cards when the robots are in battle can be taken by the Doctor himself, or any of his robots. Creating a wide area of attack for this player. Some actions are specifically meant for certain robots, as shown by the coloured icons. But anything with the Doctor's image can be used by the Doctor or the robots.
Each robot has its own special power, either allowing you to gain extra shields, knock back your opponent, or a new power to root your opponent, which means to cancel your opponent's next movement action.
Having more than one character on the board to fight with is a lot of fun. Remember, there are only nine spaces on which you can move to and fight. Potentially filling three of them with your character is pretty powerful!
Surge
Surge is a character built around speed! When setting up with this character, add the extra energy token on the lightning space on your player board. Every time you move, move your energy token up one space for each space moved on the board. When you attack, you must spend one of these energy, even when your attack misses. If you ever end your turn on the red spaces, you take one damage yourself. If you have no kinetic energy, you cannot attack. But if you spend two additional energy, then you can increase the range of your attack by one. If you overspend by three, you can increase the damage caused by your attack.
You can stack this, so spend seven energy to first attack, then add two extra damage on top to make it an attack of three. Or spend six energy to attack to a value of two two spaces away.
This is a simple character to use. Just keep moving and attacking. I love this character, especially against some of the slower fights set up for close-range combat. It creates a fantastic dynamic.
Sly
Sly is my favourite new character. Sly isn't very strong, but is fast, versatile, and has decent defence. But what makes Sly special is their ability to upgrade as they fight. They start off pretty harmless. But as you fight, you can improve your abilities.
To set up Sly, take the scrap token and place it on your player board over the scrap dial and take the upgrade deck, shuffle this and place it next to your player board, flipping over the top three cards.
Then, in the fight, when you move past your opponent you gain one scrap. Breaking any shield gains two scrap. And damaging your opponent to the rear gains five scrap. When you have six scrap you can rotate one of the three face-up upgrade cards 180 to show it is now active, on the red side. Any symbol shown on the upgrade card, when seen on a used card, now upgrades to what the upgrade card shows. For example, this Rock Skates upgrade changes one single movement to a movement of up to four.
There is something incredibly satisfying about using Sly. Increasing your power is a lot of fun. But I found I really enjoyed the process of collecting the scrap. It dictated my moves, encouraging me to do the things that meant I got more scrap. And hitting an opponent on the back and gaining five scrap is so satisfying!
Overall, this is a fantastic addition to what is already a brilliant game. If you are looking for a two-player card battler, then I honestly cannot recommend anything over this game. It may not look the best, with very simple and quite stark components and art style, but the flow of the game is fantastic and it is just so fun to play.
The symbology is incredibly simple and clear, and you get used to it within two or three turns of your first game. Everyone I have tried this with has dismissed it a little to start with due to the art style and perhaps overcomplicated looking cards. But after a few turns, everyone I have tried this with has loved it. Games are fast, and always come in runs of three or more. Trying new characters is a joy. Becoming a master of them is even more satisfying. Adding more characters to this game is all you want from an expansion, and this does that perfectly.
Each of the new four characters offers something original, unique, but most importantly, fun. This is one of the most fun card games I have ever played. It honestly may be one of my all-time favourite games to play. It is just so simple. So fast. But so satisfying to get right. The programming element can be frustrating when you get it wrong, but in truth, that happens more when your opponent does something cool that simply means they got it more right. And that is still fun to witness. And as games are so quick, loosing is not too much of a loss. Just rack 'em up and go again. I love this game.
There is a new expansion coming out soon! More news on that in a few weeks, but for now, check here.
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