Planepita Game Review by Dale Yu

Designer: Eisuke Fujinawa, Kazunori Hori
Publisher: Szpi lab
Players: 2-4
Age: 10+
Time: 15 min
Played with review copy provided by publisher

Planepita is a skill game. Players flick discs onto the main play area in the middle. Discs that land in the inner rings score more points than those in the outer rings.

Each player gets 4 alien discs in their chosen color. They also get a launch pad. A jammer disc goes in the center of the board. One side of each disc has a magnet, and the board does too. After flicking a disc, a player can turn it face down. This hides the eye on the disc and makes it stick better to the board. A disc face up is worth more than one face down. Discs score higher when closer to the center.

To begin a round, each player puts a disc on their launch pad. Then they flick it toward the board. They can start from any spot in their own area. The board has marks to divide the areas evenly. It is okay to hit other discs with yours. When your disc stops, you choose if you want to flip it face down. This makes it stick harder but lowers its value. You cannot flip a disc in the same area as the jammer disc.

Discs that cover parts of two areas count as being in the inner one. A disc that falls completely off the board goes to the black hole card. If you knock the jammer disc off, you put it back anywhere in the 5-point inner ring.

The last player to go gets a special last player token on their disc. This disc cannot be flipped. It always has a power value of 1. After everyone flicks, any face-up discs in the same ring as the jammer get removed. They go to the black hole card. Then, for each ring, players score for having the most total power from their discs there. Face-up discs give 2 power. Face-down or last discs give 1 power. The player with the most power in a ring takes that ring’s scoring token. If there is a tie, no one scores, and the token carries over to the next round.

Play this way for four rounds. The player with the most points at the end wins. Ties go to the player with the most 5-point tokens.

My thoughts on the game

I love Crokinole a lot. So any game where you flick discs catches my eye right away. That is why Planepita was high on my list at Essen. The magnets in the pieces are a cool idea. The magnet strength feels just right. Flipped pieces stick well to the board. But a strong flick can still move them. It is risky to try to hit a stuck piece. The force needed often makes your disc bounce away in a wild direction.

The scoring creates tension in later rounds. Ties happen often. Tokens can carry over, making some rings very important by the end. The outer ring ties the least. It is narrow, so many discs there touch the line and count for the next ring inward.

The rules are very well written in English. They are easy to understand. Pictures help a lot. I always worry about rules from Japanese games. But Google Translate has made this less of a problem now.

My one issue is with four players. The board feels too small for all the discs. You knock some off, but space is tight. You cannot always see discs across the board. So your shots are mostly at what is right in front of your launch pad.