Designed by: Eduardo Baraf
Lift Off! Get Me Off This Planet! is – as evidenced by the exclamation marks – a family game that despite the box’s claim to suit older children can be played by the very young.
It’s a simple and mainly luck-based game that sees each player trying to get the most of their aliens off the planet before it explodes. The board is set up to show the planet itself, made of the core, several routes to the surface, and then four Lift Off points that are activated in different ways.
Each player begins with ten aliens sat in the planets unstable core. On your turn you:
1. Pick up two cards
2. Use two movement points (one alien moves twice, or two aliens move once)
3. Play as many cards as you like.
The cards are made up of three types: Fuel and Screws (which contribute to your planetary escape by launching rockets and jet pads etc) and then special cards (red borders) which can do a variety of things. Different lift-off points require different things to work, and they are not only reliant on what cards you (and your fellow players, as most of them have room for more than one alien) have, but also the phase of the moon.
At the end of each turn the moon continues to spin around the planet, and where it is in its cycle has a bearing on the effectiveness of the various lift-off points. Every time the moon completes a full cycle of the planet, the sun moves on one space on the round order. There’s a given number of rounds (depending on how many players) and at some point the planet blows up! At that point the player with the most rescued aliens wins. It’s also possible to win before the planet blows up by rescuing all of your aliens too.
It’s a game of simple rules (remember to move the moon though!) that aligns individual play with co-operative play, and with its silly Lift Off launch pads (trampolines, slingshots, Stargates) is great for kids.
There is the Garglore, a rogue factor who moves around spoiling people's plans - but you can choose to play without him. There's also the option of playing the whole game as a co-operative where everyone is trying to empty the planet and help each other to do so.
Low.
Low - it's not a game where you need to spend a long time weighing up probabilities. Just get them aliens safe!
It's a very accessible game that the moon cycles cleverly prevent from being too predictable and repetitive. Cards ensure randomness, and there are multiple Lift Off points to choose from - they can even change during the game, courtesy of the terra-forming card!
2-5
Players
6+
Years
30-60
Mins
Sam says
It's probably not a game for the grown-ups to bring out once the kids are asleep, as everything about it screams Family Game. But as a family game it does a good job of combining luck - there's a lot of die-rolling - with strategy, all bundled into a visually-friendly package. I think moon-moving is the most intriging thing about it, and that has been employed to great effect in Orbit, which is more suited to older players.