Pojo’s Game of the Day – Planet Unknown

🪐 Planet Unknown – Board Game Review

• Game Type: Tile-Laying
• Publisher: Adam’s Apple Games
• Players: 1-6
• Play Time: 60–80 minutes
• Recommended Ages: 10+

🧠 What Is Planet Unknown?

Planet Unknown is a tile-laying, polyomino-style game where each player tries to terraform a newly discovered planet better than their rivals. It mixes Tetris-like mechanics with resource management, and has a cool rotating Lazy Susan mechanic in the middle of the table—yes, like your grandma’s spice rack, but IN SPACE.

What’s In The Box?

There are a lot of goodies inside the box:

• 1 Space Station (Lazy Susan drafting station)
• 144 Polyomino Tiles
• 6 Planet Boards – 2-sided, Symmetric and Asymmetric 
• 6 Corporation Boards – Symmetric and Asymmetric 
• 1 Commander Token
• 12 Depot Indicators
• 14 Rovers
• 36 Life pods
• 60 Meteorites
• 60 Biomass patches
• 30 Resource Trackers
• 36 Civilization Cards
• 28 Objectives
• 60 Event Cards
• 1 Scorepad

Adam’s Apple Games has truly delivered here. The central “Space Station” (that Lazy Susan!) is a fantastic centerpiece – it’s chunky, rotates smoothly, and adds a great tactile element to the game. The player boards are dual-layered, which is a huge plus for keeping your little resource tokens from sliding all over the place. The polyomino tiles themselves are thick and satisfying, and the various resource tokens and markers are well-produced. My only minor gripe is that the iconography on some of the objective cards could be a tad clearer for new players, but it’s a minor quibble. Overall, top-notch production values that really elevate the experience.

🎮 Gameplay Breakdown

Each turn, players draft one of two tiles from the rotating tray. Tiles are made of terrain types (rovers, cities, water, etc.), and placing them gains you movement up six different tech tracks that unlock bonuses and score points.

Think of it like Terraforming Mars and Barenpark had a baby, and that baby liked gadgets.

Multiplayer turns are simultaneous, so there’s minimal downtime (yay!).  Players take turns spinning the Lazy Susan (Space Station).  The active player picks the tile that suits them best.  The other players must take a tile from the slice facing them.  

You place the tile on your planet board, and then advance tracks for water, biomass, energy, and rover movement. The goal? Optimize your planet to score the most points by removing meteorite spaces, completing rows and columns, and advancing your various research tracks.

🧪 What We Liked

✅ Rotating Space Tray: This thing is FUN and makes decisions more tactical. You don’t just pick tiles—you manipulate options for everyone. 

✅ Tons of Variety: Modular planets and corporations = big replayability. Every game feels fresh.

✅ Simultaneous Turns = Speed: Rare for a heavier game to play this smoothly at 5+ players.

✅ Production Quality: Dual-layered boards, colorful pieces, and satisfying components.

✅ Mars Rover: The silly kiddie joy you get moving your rovers around your colony. 

❌ What We Didn’t Like

❌ Table Hog: This game spreads out like it’s trying to terraform your dining room. Space required—pun intended.