⭐ 5 / 5 ⭐
🧑🧒 13 +
👥 1 - 4 Player
⏳ 60 - 75 Mins
One of the games I’ve played most often solo - though it works great with any player count. This game is an entirely app-driven, space sudoku to me. While I love a game of sudoku every now and then, that alone isn’t what got me interested.
There's a lot of (very simplified) real-life science in this game, and if this paragraph makes no sense, don’t worry, you don’t need to know this! But the game is based on the 9th Planet Theory that there is an ice giant in our solar system, because of the way some icy bodies in the Kuiper Belt move - suggesting something very, very big must be nearby. I love this concept. While based on interesting science, the game itself plays quite simply.
What this means is, in this game you're studying where different astronomical bodies are in relation to each other. For example, Asteroids are adjacent to each other, in sets of 2 or 4 and Comets only appear in certain sectors. You’ll get to search for certain astronomical bodies in certain sectors, or research a general “rule” of this game, such as Dwarf Planets not being opposite Asteroids in this specific game.
Interestingly, this game uses the time mechanic, similarly to Patchwork, where the player furthest back will get a turn, which may lead to players taking 2 turns at a time if they are doing ‘low cost’ actions, which will provide less information at once.
Each player gets a handy sheet to draw, write, and scribble all over to help you solve the secrets of your solar system. I always have a moment when I play the game where one piece of information will just make several pieces fall into place and I feel like Einstein himself making a huge discovery on the layout of my little solar system.
While I love to play solo, and this is always the game I pull off the shelf if I’m desperate to play a game but nobody’s around, there's a nice competitive balance when playing with others. Finding Planet X doesn't guarantee you the win, you win by points! But to get points, you need to give all your competitors valuable info... This game does everything right to me, and with endless possibilities, and even a double sided board for a harder level of difficulty, every game is a completely new puzzle.
My only fear in this game, which requires the app, is that one day the app may be shut down - but hopefully that will be decades away. Luckily with the nature of this game, you could easily play this with a game master providing you the clues instead of the app!
Review by Jen
Last Played: 09/03/26 / Solo / 45 Minutes