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What happens when a bunch of flying saucers crash-land on the same planet and all start rescuing their crews at once? In Crash & Grab, the answer is simple: it gets chaotic, competitive, and very entertaining.
In this game, each player controls a UFO that’s just made a very awkward landing. Your goal is to recover your lost crew, steal the occasional crewmember from your rivals, and upgrade your ship along the way. The first player to fully staff their saucer with one crewmember of each type wins.
But of course, nothing in Crash & Grab ever goes quite according to plan. Between the crashes, the collisions, the rotating turn order and the slightly mischievous upgrades, things quickly spiral into a sort of tactical space comedy.
👥 2-6 players, ages 13+
⌛ Playing time: 30-50 minutes
📝 Designers: Brian Henk & Clayton Skancke
🎨 Artwork: Loïc Billiau
🏢 Publisher: Pull the Pin Games (preview copy provided)
Check out the Kickstarter campaign by clicking here
Gameplay Overview
Each player starts with a little escape pod box (which is both adorable and surprisingly practical), holding your flying saucer and four matching crew tokens, a saucer mat that shows the inside of your ship, and three movement cards.
Rounds stick to the same structure (even if the action doesn’t). First, everyone picks one movement card in secret. These cards show how far you want to move and in which direction. Some give you bonuses like energy or boosters, while others let you choose a custom distance. You slide your card under your saucer mat to lock in your move, pointing the direction you plan to go.
Then comes a twist. The player holding the probe rolls the rotation die to decide whether turns will go clockwise or counterclockwise. It’s a small detail, but it can definitely mess with your plans in the best possible way.
During your turn, you either re-enter the board if you were previously crashed, or you activate your upgrades and make your move. Movement is always in a straight line. If you hit another saucer, you stop, and they get pushed the same distance in the same direction. This is where things get interesting.
Sometimes, these movements trigger accelerators on the board, which cause another movement, either in the direction you were hit or in a direction of your choice. There’s a nice puzzle element to it all, but without making your head hurt.
As you move, you can pick up crewmembers by flying through their space. If it’s your colour, it’s protected and safe. If not, it can be stolen later. Each crew type goes in a specific spot on your saucer mat, and if you already have one of that type, the new one just stacks on top. Only the topmost off-coloured crewmember can be stolen, so there’s a bit of tactical thinking involved.
After all players have taken their turns, it’s clean-up time. If you flew off the board on your turn, you have to give one off-coloured crewmember (if you have one) to the player with the fewest stationed crew. If you crashed during someone else’s turn, they get to either steal a crewmember or gain an energy token.
Any new crewmembers picked up are replaced by rolling the placement die and dropping them on a new crash site. Players can also spend energy to draw two upgrade cards, choosing one to keep. These upgrades can give you permanent abilities, from extra movement to crew protection.
At the end of the round, any crashed saucers are placed back on the board, and the probe token is passed to the player with the fewest stationed crewmembers. This player becomes the new starting player, giving them a slight catch-up advantage.
The game ends immediately when someone has one of each type of crewmember stationed on their saucer. In two-player mode, each player controls two saucers, and both need to be fully staffed to win. That makes things a bit more puzzly, but we’ll get to that.
Visuals and Components
Crash & Grab has a bold, cartoonish look that really suits the gameplay. The artwork, by Loïc Billiau, leans into the chaos with expressive alien characters, zany upgrades and colourful everything. But it never feels messy. Quite the opposite, actually.
The saucers are plastic miniatures, each in a different colour, and they match with the escape pods and saucer mats. The mats themselves are shaped like octagons, with clearly marked stations for each crew type, storage areas, and a slot to show your movement direction. Each one has its own unique interior design, full of odd alien tech.
The crewmembers are cardboard tokens, each with their own shape and a slightly deranged personality. There’s something satisfying about collecting them, especially when you steal one from someone who thought they were safe. (Sorry not sorry.)
The board is made up of modular tiles, showing a dusty alien planet with crash sites and directional accelerators. It’s easy to read at a glance, with symbols that are bold and consistent. The rest of the components, like the dice and energy cubes, are easy to manage and add to the game’s bright, playful look.
The upgrade cards are a bit of a show-stealer. They come with full-colour illustrations and just a few lines of text, so they’re quick to understand and fun to use.
Overall, it’s one of those games that looks like a bit of a mess, but in a very deliberate way. It’s loud and playful, but still very readable on the table.
Our Experience
When we played Crash & Grab, we laughed more than we strategised, which, to be fair, felt like the point. That’s not to say the game isn’t tactical, because it definitely is, but the fun comes from adapting to what happens rather than sticking to a rigid strategy.
Movement is simple on paper, but with crashes, boosts and accelerators involved, every round becomes a puzzle. The collisions can be chaotic, but they’re rarely random. You can often see them coming if you pay attention, which makes pulling off a clever crash incredibly satisfying.
With four or five players, things really come alive, and there’s almost always someone flying into someone else. Chain reactions happen all the time, and it never gets old when someone ends up exactly where they were trying not to be.
The win condition keeps the tension high. Since you can win in the middle of a round, even right before a crash, everyone’s always watching the board carefully. It’s rare for a round to feel dull, and the pace moves along nicely.
Upgrades added more depth than we expected. Some are quite powerful if used at the right time, and there’s a nice balance between defensive and aggressive options. In longer games, they can definitely shape your approach.
In two-player games, the tone shifts a bit. Controlling two saucers each adds more planning and combo potential. You can pass crewmembers between your own ships and pull off some satisfying little manoeuvres. It feels more calculated, less chaotic, which we found surprisingly enjoyable.
And even though it’s crash-heavy, the game keeps players involved. There’s no elimination, and the rotating turn order plus the probe mechanic mean that players who fall behind still have a way back in.
One last thing worth mentioning: the production quality really does help with the experience. The components are well made, the design is intuitive, and those little matchbox-style escape pods are just fun to use.
Our Thoughts
At its core, Crash & Grab is a light, energetic game that thrives on movement, interaction and a bit of controlled chaos. It’s quick to learn, easy to teach, and doesn’t overstay its welcome. We’d happily bring it out on a casual game night, especially with four or five players who enjoy playful sabotage and a bit of unpredictability.
That said, if your group prefers precise planning and low-interaction eurogames, this might not be the right fit. Crashes can mess up your best ideas, and the turn order rotation can throw a spanner in the works when you least expect it. That’s part of the fun for some, but frustrating for others.
What we liked most is the flexibility. You can play aggressively, targeting others and stealing their crew, or you can focus on upgrades and movement efficiency. Both approaches can work, and the random elements never feel unfair. More like… mildly chaotic surprises. Like a UFO crashing into your picnic.
The modular board and randomised upgrades also keep things fresh. No two games feel quite the same, and the artwork and components give the whole experience a lot of personality.
So yes, Crash & Grab is a bit silly, occasionally messy, but very clever underneath. It’s a game that knows what it is, embraces the mayhem, and offers just enough control to keep things competitive.
Crash & Grab is currently live on Kickstarter. You can find the campaign here.
📝 We received a review copy from Pull the Pin Games.
