Game: Planetiles
Genre: Puzzle
System: Steam (Windows, macOS, Linux)
Developer|Publisher: MythicOwl
Controller Support: Full
Price: US $9.99 | UK £7.99 | EU € 8,99
Release Date: April 3rd, 2024
A review code was provided, with many thanks to Big Games Machine.
Planetiles is a tile-placing game. In order to win, you will need to put land types next to each other to fulfil certain requirements for each of the different levels.
The Gameplay of Planetiles
Planetiles plays a lot like similar tile-placing games, like Dorfromantik. You have a limited amount of space in Planetiles, though, and there are several levels, each with different ends you are aiming for. For example, the first level just requires that you get 500 points by putting similar tiles next to one another and fulfilling level goals. Each level has a main goal and special goals that can give you extra points. If you check out the screenshot below, the Primary goal is “Fill the planet so there are no more than 10 gaps.” The secondary goals are “Score 10,000 points,” and “complete the primary goal using the Flag.”
Once you are at the level itself, you will get a starting island. The starting island is the only tile that can be placed without touching another tile. Next, you need to place tiles in the order you get them, making structures and sets of tiles to finish mini-goals that are on the right side of the screen. Once you have fulfilled the main mission, the level will keep going until you end it yourself, allowing you to try to get the secondary goals.
Tile Placement Games and How Planetiles Lines Up
The vast majority of tile placement games I’ve played have been board games like Carcassonne, but I have had the opportunity to play a few video games in the genre. There was one game I particularly liked recently called Quilts and Cats of Calico, and I’m a huge fan of Dorfromantik. It reminds me a lot of both of these games in a good way. The puzzles are challenging but they don’t feel impossible, and you get all these sorts of interesting choices to make things harder for yourself.
The movement and action of the tiles are well polished, similar again to the two video games mentioned above. Planetiles has a cold but bright colour palette that looks a little juvenile on its face, but it actually quite fits the vibe the game is going for. I was not too fond of the aesthetic at first, but it pretty quickly grew on me. The music and sound effects were well done; none of them were too invasive, though some of the sounds were a little loud. I just ended up turning the whole master sound down a little and had no further issues. So, at first, it just looked like a weirdly colored copycat of other tiles games, but I was pleasantly surprised at how Planetiles actually turned out.
The Levels of Planetiles
Basically, the primary goals of all the different planets are fairly easy, much easier than the special goals. In order to unlock the next level, you need to complete the primary goal for the level before it can be achieved. In order to move onto the next planet, you have to do complete all the Primary objectives from the previous planet.
It was frustrating to want to play the other planets in Planetiles just to mess around with them and have them locked for no good reason. I understand the slow ramping of difficulty, but I wanted to play with the harder levels to try them out without having to beat every single level before it. There was no “Skip this level because it’s not fun for me,” either. Many of the levels have a goal of “fill in the entire planet” or similar, and I didn’t find those as fun as the other types of missions.
Regardless, I completed the first planet and started moving onto the second when I decided instead to be a weird completionist about it; I spent the rest of my time with this game playing missions over and over again, trying to unlock all the structures, complete all the side quests, and just play around in Sandbox mode, which is available for each planet.
Conclusion
Overall, Planetiles is a super fun tile placement game. I like the look and style of the game. It feels well-polished, and the sound design is great. All the action, placement, and movement feel really good, and the visuals grow on you after a while. I came to really appreciate the trippy space aesthetic much more than I thought I would after about 30 minutes in.
It’s fun, challenging, and has a whole lot of replayability. There is a lot to love about Planetiles and very, very few things I didn’t like. I do wish that the tutorial was a little more informative, but it couldn’t ruin my enjoyment of the game overall. If you enjoy tile placement video games or board games, I would recommend Planetiles to you.
Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot.
