MARS ATTACKS was originally a set of collectable and tradable cards released in 1962 for children. The original set contained 55 cards and each one detailed an aspect of the Martian invasion of Earth, and the eventual resistance and counter-invasion of Mars by humanity. Topps, the owners of the series, had to end production of the cards prematurely because the violence depicted and the implied sexuality of certain cards. My first experience of MARS ATTACKS was the 90’s film by Tim Burton. It’s bad, it’s really bad. I love it. MARS ATTACKS has always had a good sense of dark humour and the film captured that wonderfully. The giant brained, bog-eyed Martians evoke that camp, over the top comedy so well. I heard as well that the iconic ‘ack ack’ noises that the Martians of the film make is actually the quacking of a duck played backwards.

It wasn’t until a while later however that I really began to appreciate the silliness of MARS ATTACKS in any meaningful way. In October 2013 Mantic Games ran a Kickstarter for their MARS ATTACKS miniatures game. I’ve had a quiet respect for Mantic for the last few years and was sold fairly quickly on the idea of 28mm Martians with freeze/death/heat rays against hapless soldiers. I suppose this pose is a semi-review of that game, as well as a discussion of the series as a whole.

When my pledge arrived I was astounded at how much they’d given me for my money, as well as the quality of the items. The rules are derived from Mantic’s other game, Deadzone, albeit simplified so anyone can pick it up. My brother isn’t really into miniature wargaming but I managed to convince him to give this one a go and we had a blast. The randomness of the rules create a truly over the top feel. He, playing as the Martians, pressed my poor soldiers back through the ruins, killing them all with disintegration rifles. As he was about the finish off the last few of the remaining members of my band of brothers something unexpected happened. A herd of flaming cows came reeling in from off the board and trampled his alien friends. In quick succession, before the Martians could recover, a giant spider erupted from the ground, the result of weird Martian science, and began devouring the scattered aliens. I seized the opportunity and pressed the attack. I think I still lost that game in the end, I can’t remember too well, though what I do remember is that it was fun and funny.

It’s a good game, and one to pick up should you want something to play with a friend in an afternoon, especially if they’re not usually into miniature games. The game comes packed with a ton of scenarios as well as points values for each unit type, allowing for a more competitive game should you want it though this really isn’t where MARS ATTACKS  shines. It’s also worth mentioning the ton of support and expansions that Mantic have thrown at MARS ATTACKS the miniatures game. There’s a lot; models for saucers, giant robots, human resistance fighters, martian scientists, to name but a few. It’s not surprising that, at the time of writing, I believe it is the most successful Mantic Kickstarter to date. All in all, it’s a crazy afternoon game that I wholeheartedly recommend.

To move on a bit from the miniatures game however,  I’d just like to briefly mention the comics. Various authors and artists have worked on  MARS ATTACKS strips over the years, with varying levels of seriousness put into it. I enjoyed reading the collected MARS ATTACKS CLASSICS by a plethora of writers. I did feel however that those stories took themselves a little too seriously for the MARS ATTACKS name. What I felt better captured the feel of the original card set was the more recent stuff by John Layman, John McCrea and Andrew Elder. It really had that comedic, camp side to it with things like the Martians disguising themselves as Queen’s guardsmen, dancing girls and cardinals.

Overall I just like to say that I hope Topps continues to sub-license MARS ATTACKS as successfully as they have done in the past. Carry on. Ack! Ack!