Space Planets

Space Planets

Space Planets is yet another fantastic Haba game. If you have read the rest of my blog you will know how much I love Haba games (if you haven't read it then you should).

Space Planets is a game described from 3 years plus but mostly this is due to very small pieces in it.  Also this is designed for 2-4 players and I have played it at 2,3 and 4 players and it is always fun. The 4 player game doesn't even take that long as in general the game is pretty quick if everyone is involved in playing.  The times where this game has lasted ages for us is really only when our child gets distracted and isn't actually playing.  If you are watching your child and they aren't normally a kid who puts things in their mouth you should be able to play from slightly younger.  I have played this with a 20 month old a few times as well.  I regularly played this with my 2 year old.  Please do not just take my word for it though and don't ever leave young children unattended with small game pieces.

Basic game play is a dice aim game with minor decision making so this is great for motor skills as well as a fun game for everyone to play.  While this game is small and you can travel with it you can't play it well in planes or at cafes so if you want a travel game I wouldn't pick this one (try Alana's Animals or Deduction as they travel much better).


Game Play

Basic game play is simple. Each person has a rocket colour and that is their home rocket. There is a 3x3 grid of planets set up for players to try and buy by rolling the die onto the planet card. They use the die to travel to planets (or black holes if you have an accident) and they buy those planets with the number of fuel cells indicated on the die (the little blue gems).  You start the game with a few fuel cells and any time you miss all the cards or land on a card but don't buy it you gain more fuel cells.

You land on planets by rolling the die onto the planet card, only a little bit of the die needs to actually touch the card, but even if you miss you can get fuel cells. This means that even if players aren't good at rolling the dice onto a planet they will still have end game points of fuel cells. The only disadvantage in this game is the black holes which means that player looses their turn, but then the black hole card is then replaced so potentially it doesn't happen that often.  First person to get 5 planet cards ends the game, however the winner is the person with the most stars in the corners of the planet cards. So for example you could get 5 one star planets but if another person has 3 planets that are worth 3,2,1 stars they might actually win (although fuel cells count for points at well).

This game also has the addition of special situations that are in the bottom corner of each card, which means you can start playing with young kids without these special things happening then add them in later. For example in the photo on the left you can buy a 2 star value planet for 2 fuel cells, but it allows you to get one fuel cell back right away - so in actual fact you bought it only for 1.  The special events are in the lower left corner of the picture and the value (for end game points) is in the upper left in this example.

The best part of this game is the way that you get and buy planets, it is all about the die rolling skills.  Space Planets has taught my son to roll gently as if he rolls too hard he will entirely miss all the planets.  If you space the cards closer or further apart (entirely up to you) you can also encourage more aimed rolling. Cards spaced closer together are easier to land on then ones spaced further apart.  The buying planets choices can also be a challenge for little ones as they have to make a decisions. When the die lands on a planet it has two sets of information. The first being the stars of the planet (which are the end game scoring points) and the second being the fuel cells on the dice. So for example a star value 3 planet is worth buying even if you have to pay 1-3 fuel cells for it, whereas a star value 1 planet isn't worth buying for 3 fuel cells.  When my son was little he didn't make these decisions well but as he grew he makes much more strategic ones based on what is best for him at the time. 

As time as passed we have even added our own rules of making 4x4 or 5x5 grids but this has meant the cards run out faster and so therefore really only work for the 2-3 player games.


Review

If you can't already tell I love this game. It works on decision making, motor skills, luck and the images are absolutely beautiful. We also look at the cards and explore the things that make up a planet or say an asteroid, although entirely in a pretend way as the images are in no way realistic.  If you have a space obsessed child like I do then you will love this for years to come.  I would say you could still enjoy this with a 6 year old at least and I have played it with children from 20 months to 9 years (and with adults) with everyone enjoying it.  The older kids won't enjoy this forever though but it is something that they can play once in a while with a sibling.  If there weren't little pieces I would say two kids could play this on their own alone, but as the fuel cells are really small if my son plays it with his other 4 year old friends I don't always have to participate but I do stay in the room as the pieces can get lost or eaten really easily.

This is easily a Haba game that I would own without owning any other games and it was one of the first ones we ever bought.  I know a few Friendly Local Game Stores that sell Haba (this being one of them) but they don't always have this particular one in stock as it is really everyone's favourite.  You can usually find it online as well.  I think our copy was around £8 in 2016 so definitely likely to be more now.  However considering how much we play it I would easily by this for more if you play games and want to have it for years.