Ever wanted to build your own world?
Well, now you can with Planet™, a tabletop game for creating a planet suitable for all forms of animal life!
Players: 2-4 Ages: 8+ Game Time: 30-45mins
Gameplay
Planet™ is a unique building game, where each player is entrusted with their own core 3D barren world. Each player takes turns in placing magnetic habitat tokens on their cores.
Habitats consist of arctic tundras, forests, deserts, oceans and mountains.
As each world is built, and the different habitats expand, you start to see life emerging. Each turn has a selection of animals that need a home, and players try to match their planet to the needs of the animals. But your animals are picky creatures, some like it hot, some like it cold, and others do not entertain living near spaces they dislike.
The player with the most hospitable planets is the winner.
The best world is one with a rich variety of animals and habitats
I liked that the first player marker moves around, so you don’t always get the first or last pick of the tiles, and there’s a variant that hides some of the animals for that round, meaning you can’t always manipulate the planet for a quick score.
I wasn’t very happy with the scoring system though. Each player is given a planet type card at random at the start of the game, this represents the types of habitat; there’s one for ice world, one for forests, oceans etc. This card can net you additional points if your planet tiles favour the same thing as your planet card. So far, so good, but when looking at the animals you acquire, you gain 1 point for each animal that matches your planet card (so 1 point for the panda on a forest world for example), but you get 2 points for animals which do not match your planet card (so a polar bear on your panda haven actually nets you more points ...) with this mechanic you’re far better to ignore the planet cards altogether.
Younger players will undoubtedly love this though, so it is worth giving it a try. It’s freely available on Amazon too so easy enough to pick up. You may also be able to purchase it at your Friendly Local Games Store.
Production
The game producers, Blue Orange Games, had forethought on the durability of the game; the pieces come with spare metal discs for your core world just in case any are damaged or fall off. On one hand, I liked the forethought, but it does make me question how well the game will actually stand up to long-term use.
Conclusion
In terms of gameplay, Planet™ is very simple and easy to understand. Building the planet is quite fun, but can be tricky as you rotate your 3D planet to find the best place for the land markers.
The game tiles are generated in a random order, allowing for some replayability However, for this gamer the overall concept was a little simple. The premise was intriguing, but came across a little gimmicky and at times a little frustrating; it’s harder to count your tiles than you would think on your globe. Also, the scoring system should have been thought through better.
All in all, I give this a 3 on the die- a little too simple for me, but worth it for younger gamers. Just remember to leave those planet cards in the box, after all the best world is one with a rich variety of animals and habitats, don’t you think?
Dino-Girl
You can buy this game from Amazon here
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