There are some tabletop games that have very unique meeples; The little characters that players play as. Often, these are just a unique artstyle, but in Intergalactic Plumber, they are actually created to be a large part of the game. These meeples feel well made and have a little suction cup, which allows you to stick and pick up tiles.
Intergalactic Plumber has a lot of very fun aspects to it. The entire board is different each and every time you play due to set up, where you need to take out the three different meteorite types and shuffle them up, spreading them out onto your table in whatever way you want. The rule book suggests a ring, straight line or giant circle. Once you have all of the tiles spread out, but still touching each other, you then have each player place down their individual astronaut.
On their turn, a player must roll two dice; one has a color and one has a number of stars. You are then able to move the number of spaces on the star dice, without going back on any spaces you came from. If you can go over one of the matching color tiles to the color dice you rolled, then you can pick up that tile and add it to your bank. Meteorites have different points depending on how big they are and some have an explosion on the back, which allows you to take a second turn.
As players start to remove all of the tiles on the board, you’ll find gaps forming in the galaxy. These gaps make moving around trickier as if your meeple isn’t within distance based on the size of their feet then they cannot jump there. If you cannot move the full number of stars you rolled on your turn then your astronaut ends up floating out to space, and you are done with the game.
Intergalactic Plumber is designed for a younger audience, although our group often finds a lot of joy in games that feel ideal for younger ones. Our issue with this game was with two different design elements; When moving around and suctioning up items, you sort of lose where you are on the map or if you are close enough. Although it’s very fun to use your suction cups, it’s more of a hassle than anything else. I can imagine the amount of struggle we might have playing with younger kids, especially if they knock some of the other tiles around the board while suctioning up an asteroid.
The other sort of issue, especially if playing with younger ones, is how easily you can end up dying in the game. Once you are out of Intergalactic Plumber, you are just stuck watching. Even if you are playing the game, after a few friends are out, nothing really ramps up and everyone is just rolling and collecting near each other. I almost wish there were more mysterious things on the back of meteorites that would allow you to mess with other players or move meteorites. One of our group suggested a way of being able to “flick” a meteorite back into the galaxy, which would also be fun.
We did really love the pieces in Intergalactic Plumber, but we wish that there was more complexity in the gameplay design.
You can purchase Intergalactic Plumber on Amazon.
