Houston, we have a Kickstarter preview!
I am crazy excited to share with you an inside, in-depth look at Pencil First Games’ upcoming Expanded Deluxe Edition of Lift Off! Get Me Off This Planet!
They kindly sent us a copy to play and check out before the start of their campaign (Which is going on right now!!) and it is SO GOOD!
What is Lift Off?
Lift Off! Get Me Off This Planet (Lift Off) is a fast-paced game where you are trying to be the first to get your aliens off the planet before it explodes. You’ll move your aliens around the planet, playing resource and action cards to ensure your escape, often timing it with the position of the moon.
How do you play?
The first thing you’ll need to do is set up your game board. The modular board is made using very sturdy cardboard puzzle pieces that allow players to choose and change the board each time they play. This version of Lift Off comes with 10 lift off points that are double sided! Yes, you read that right. That means you have 20 different lift off points to choose from! Choose what lift off points you want, or follow their helpful starting guide for your first couple of games.
Each player places all of their aliens in the core (center) of the board and is dealt four cards to form their starting hand.
Game Turn
Play Phase
On your turn you can do any of the following actions in any order at any time.
-Move: You may move your alien(s) up to two times
-Play Action Cards: Play any number of Action cards in any order
-Pay Launch Platform/Lift Off Costs: Some lift off points require a certain number of resources to place your alien on the launch platform and/or Lift Off.
-Trade 2 Cards for 1: discard two cards from your hand to draw 1 new card from the deck. You can do this as many times as you wish as long as you have the required 2 cards to trade.
Moon Phase
After you are done with your Play Phase, you will move the moon token counter-clockwise one spot around the Planet.
Draw
Draw two cards to end your turn.
Play proceeds counter-clockwise around and around the table until someone has successfully launched all ten of their aliens to safety or the planet has exploded.
Each time the Moon Token moves all the way around the Planet and reaches the Star Icon at the top of the board you’ll move the Sun Token one spot forward on the Day Track. This track monitors the days that pass. When it reaches the end of the track, the Planet explodes immediately, ending the game.
Game End.
As soon as a player saves all of their Aliens, the game ends and that player is declared the winner. If the Planet explodes before this happens, the person with the most Aliens saved wins the game.
Game Variants
The rules include multiple game variants for play as well! These offer players a whole host of challenges and also include ways to play with teams and for families with younger kids! There are also rules and components for a Solo Challenge Mode!
What do we think?
Lift Off is easily one of my favorite new games we’ve learned this past year. It has everything you want in a game: a fun theme, easy to learn, high customization, replayability, and satisfying game play.
This is a perfect family game, especially for those that may be looking to sneak in more strategic game play for their younger kids. While it’s great for families, it is also perfect for adult game nights as well. Our group loves it!
Because the board is comprised of puzzle sections that provide the launch pads, you will be able to customize and design unique boards to provide different challenges so you don’t play the same game twice. Even better, the rules have some very helpful guides if you’re looking for ways to scale up or down the difficulty depending on who you’re playing with.
These lift off points also provide an interesting level of strategy for players to work through. Some lift off points are easier to launch than others, some have guaranteed launch times yet only allow a small number of aliens to launch, others allow many aliens on but will require a certain level of cooperation amongst the players to activate it, others still only work when another alien launches you, hoping that someone else comes and launches them later! I absolutely love this variability and all of the choices these lift off points present players. We have had a blast with this tricky balance of cooperating together, while also wanting the other to fail, especially as the end nears and the competition heats up.
One of the things I love about board games is the way they can help create hilarious and exciting moments that you remember long after the game has ended. Those moments are plentiful in Lift Off! The game is paced well with fun, lighthearted tension between players as everyone works their way off the planet, forming momentary alliances to launch one turn only to abandoned them (and their opponent) a few turns later.
If you aren’t a fan of luck in your games, then it is my duty to tell you that, much like we’d require a bit of luck if we were to escape our planet, there is some luck involved in Lift Off as well. This comes in the form of card draws, some dice rolls, and occasionally what other players choose to do on their own turns that might be against your interests.
That being said, I find the luck elements a fun part of the game. Yes, sometimes they don’t cut in my favor, but there’s some thing fun about sitting on a full launch pad and anxiously hoping to roll three rocket ships to save yourself and a couple of your buddies.
There is also the potential for a bit of take-that in Lift Off. This is almost entirely dependent on the people playing the game. Lift Off can be as nice or as mean as you want it to be, and even at its meanest, it’s still pretty tame and keeps everything lighthearted and jovial.
Theme & Design
So often space games are dark, drab, and require a bit of a push to get folks (read: me) to play them. However, Lift Off is bright, colorful, and highly inviting.
The theme is also fun. The planet is going to explode and those alien meeples are so cute you’re going to want to help them get to safety ASAP! I enjoy this take on the space theme because, at least to me, it doesn’t seem overdone. So often you’re trying to fix up a planet, explore, or make something habitable, here you’re just trying to not explode!
Components
This game is packed full with quality game elements! Seriously. It well earns it’s Deluxe label.
I love the alien meeples and adore their cute little faces. Everyone that has played this with us inevitably picks them up and starts animating them and moving them around the planet. I love when the game isn’t just fun to play but also fun to play with! Games are games! They shouldn’t be so serious all the time and Lift Off gets that!
The puzzle board is fantastic and provides a great level of customization and variety in the launch pads! These puzzle pieces are very sturdy which is exactly what you’ll need since you’ll be moving these in and out as you set up, tear down, and even sometimes during play. They all fit into the core nicely too so you don’t have to worry about bunching up the cardboard.
There is so much offered here and it really is fantastic in allowing families to make the board friendly for younger players or much more challenging for a group of experienced players.
Because of this amazing variety, I truly feel like Lift Off is a complete game. I am completely happy with everything that comes in this package and feel like nothing was left on the table. It’s very well done.
Is it better with a specific player count?
Lift Off plays 1-6 players and works great at pretty much all player counts! As a primarily 2 and 3 player household, we have had a blast with it.
Certainly the more players you have the more crowded those launch pads become, but you also have a bit more time to work towards getting off the planet and a bit more help from fellow players to activate launch pads that you might be sharing with them.
The solo game is also a very nice puzzle. If you like to play on your own, this is a fun challenge that feels solvable but is challenging enough that you can’t win it every time. It’s simple enough that an 8 or 9 year old could set it up and play on their own as well. If you are a strictly solo player, there’s probably not enough here to keep you happy, but we are really glad it is included in the copy we received for review as it adds a nice little extra for players to work through.
All that being said, the game does shine best with multiple players. My favorite games involved 4 and 5 players because of the chaos it caused on the launch pads.
Can kids play?
As parents, we found Lift Off a perfect game for kids in that 7 – 8 age range. The time frame hits around 30-45 minutes for play. Some games can take longer, but most of our games have hit in that range. This is great because it keeps their attention spans focused while also helping to stretch them a bit.
Our daughter Alice absolutely loved the game. She took to it right away and really honed in on some elements and strategies involved. Its nice knowing too that as she gets better at playing, we’ll be able to increase the difficulty level to continue challenging her.
Summary
Lift Off! Get Me Off This Planet is a wonderful game that offers a great level of variety and customization to allow families to play together with a wide range of ages and skill levels. The game has a fun amount of interesting decisions for players to work through and makes plenty of room for those fun game night moments where everyone is laughing and playfully combative.
With tight, snappy turns, Lift Off plays quickly in about 45 minutes. This is a great choice for families, an instant add to our shelf, and one that we highly recommend looking into.
The Kickstarter for Lift Off: Get Me Off This Planet begins today, January 7th! Head to their Kickstarter page to learn more or make a pledge to secure yourself a copy upon completion!
A special thank you to Pencil First Games for sending us a copy of Lift Off! Get Me Off This Planet for review. As always our thoughts and opinions are our own. Please Note: The components pictured here are part of a prototype copy and are subject to change.
Game Info:
Title: Lift Off! Get Me Off This Planet
1-6 players Ages 13+
Designer: Eduardo Baraf
Artist: Nichole Kelley
Publisher: Pencil First Games
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