- rank: 121
- rating: 8.3
- published: 2025
- designers: T.K. King, Dennis Northcott, & Koltin Thompson
Print Status
- in print
Why It's On The List
- Galactic Cruise isn’t a huge step forward in gaming innovation – it’s a worker placement game with a variety of ways to score in-game and end game points. But the design accomplishes that with such style and thematic integration that I was instantly won over.
- The game has what I lovingly call “the Tom Lehmann curve”. Those of you who’ve played some of Tom’s designs (particularly Res Arcana or New Frontiers) have experienced it – where the pace of the game accelerates dramatically as we approach the end of the game. I’m not complaining – I actually like this arc in games instead of the tendency of some Euros to get slower and slower as the number of decisions required make each turn longer & longer. (I still have PTSD from my last game of Tikal where I spent the final 30 minutes watching other players attempt to min-max their action points for the final turn.)
- The biggest "blocking point" in the game is the competition for customers - it's the most limited resource.
- Speaking of customers, you can use assign customers to flights that you have not scheduled in order to grab the bonuses... sometimes, that's easier than other ways to get cash plus it ties up customers that other players want to use.
- Don't get fixated on a single strategy - a lot depends on what is available and what openings other players are leaving for you.
Extras
- I told my adult sons (whom I have brainwashed into being rabid board gamers) that Kinson Key reminded me of Paverson Games – small companies with new designers who knocked it out of the park with their first big game. (Paverson is the company behind Distilled, my favorite “new to me” game of 2024.) Both games sport excellent rulebooks, splendid quality production, smart use of GameTrayz storage to make the game easier to set up & tear down, and really enjoyable game systems. Both used Kickstarter wisely to fund their big games – and, honestly, these kinds of games from small companies is a best use case scenario for crowdfunding.
- The solo system works really well - and it's a pleasure to play.
- I wrote a review of the game & solo system for the Opinionated Gamers site.
- Note: I received a discounted review copy (yes, that means I paid for shipping and some part of the cost of the game).
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