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Orbita is a small two-player game where you and your opponent watch four planets drift around a circular track while trying to play cards from a hand you’re not allowed to rearrange. And honestly, that fixed hand is doing half the work here. It’s the kind of rule that sounds simple, but once you look at your cards you think, “Alright… this is going to be interesting.”
Each turn, you play a little group of matching cards to push a planet forward in its orbit. Winning rounds matters, but winning by too much is usually a bad idea, which is a fun twist. The whole thing feels a bit like trying to predict tides while someone else keeps poking the moon. Anyway, let’s look at how it works.
👥 2 players, ages 8+
⏳️ Playing time: 15 minutes
📝 Designer: Geonil
🎨 Artwork: Doming
🏢 Publisher: Korea Boardgames (review copy provided)
Gameplay Overview
At the start, the board goes in the middle and the four wooden planets wait next to it. You always play with all 28 cards in the deck: seven of each planet type. You get 14 cards and that order stays exactly the same for the whole game. No shifting things around, even when the cards tempt you.
A round begins with the starting player choosing one planet type and playing one, two or three matching cards that sit next to each other in their hand. You then move that planet on the board by the same number of spaces. If a planet hasn’t entered the track yet, it always starts on space 1 as its first step, skipping it if it’s already taken. After that, planets move clockwise and skip over anything that’s occupied.
The second player then plays their turn with one restriction: they can’t play the same planet type that the first player used this round. Playing big clusters is a bit tricky, because you can only ever play small sets of one to three. And if you split a big clump in a way that leaves a final bit of three or fewer together, you’ll have to play that whole group at once sooner or later.
Once both players have acted, you compare the two planets that were played. Whichever one sits higher up on the board wins the round. If they have the same printed number, the one sitting on a space with a little plus sign wins. The winner takes all cards played that round and becomes the starting player for the next one.
The game can end quite suddenly. If a player either has no cards left or only has cards of the planet the starting player just used, the game stops. Remaining cards are discarded, and if the starting player played a final move that the second player could not respond to, that move doesn’t count toward scoring.
Scoring is straightforward. For each planet type you compare piles. Whoever has fewer cards flips their pile face down and hands them over to the opponent for points. Each card is worth one. If there’s a tie for a planet type, nothing happens. After all four types are checked, the player with the higher score wins.
Artwork, Components and Presentation
Let’s be fair: Orbita is a small card game at heart. But the production is quite nice for its size. The four planet types each have their own visual style. You have a green planet with tree-like textures, a blue one that looks like crystals, a purple one that’s more like a swirling nebula and an orange molten one. Each card has decorative borders, which look good but don’t get in the way.
The wooden planet markers match the artwork and feel solid. You move them a lot, so it’s nice they’re not flimsy. The board is dark and space-themed, with the scoring track on the sides in a simple, readable layout. The box and card backs show an astronomer looking up at the sky, which fits the idea of you observing everything.
Nothing here is over the top, but it all feels consistent and pleasant on the table.
Our Experience
Our plays usually start with both of us staring at our card hands in silence, because once you realise you can’t rearrange anything, the whole hand becomes a puzzle. Sometimes you get neat clusters that make you smile, and sometimes you think, “Well… that’s awkward.”
Once planets start moving, the board becomes its own little puzzle. Movement is easy to understand, but because planets skip any spaces that are already occupied, a small move on your cards can lead to a bigger shift on the track than you first expected. It’s predictable if you really look at it, but to be honest, it still caught us off guard a few times, especially when several planets were bunched together. After a few plays you get better at reading it, but I guess there’s always that moment where you think, “Wait… why is green suddenly so high up?”
Interaction is constant. Choosing a planet not only affects the track, it also blocks your opponent from using that planet this round. Sometimes you do it without thinking too much, sometimes you do it on purpose to limit their options. It might not look like much, but it matters more often than you’d think.
The end of the game can be surprisingly sharp. One turn you feel fine, and the next you suddenly can’t respond legally anymore. The scoring also has a bit of a sting to it. You might dominate a planet 7 to 0 and still score nothing for it, which feels a little brutal but also kind of funny once you’ve accepted it.
Replayability depends a lot on how your 14-card hand comes together. Some games feel fresh, others feel familiar, but the orbital movement usually mixes things up enough that you don’t fall into the same patterns straight away.
For us, Orbita feels like a short, thinky duel where the main pleasure comes from reading your hand and timing your moves. It’s satisfying, but the fixed deck means it won’t surprise you forever.
Our Thoughts
Orbita is, in our opinion, a clever little two-player filler that’s built around one strong idea: your card order is set in stone. If you’re the sort of player who likes neat little tactical puzzles, this will probably feel right.
The system of playing small clusters, watching the track and timing your moves works nicely together. It shapes how the game moves from turn to turn. At the same time, it’s fair to say that the game’s variety is limited. With the same 28 cards every time, experienced players might start to feel some repetition.
Also, the sudden endings and the scoring system might not be for everyone. The game doesn’t hide the fact that it rewards small wins much more than big ones, and that can feel a bit strange at first.
Still, if you like short, focused two-player games and don’t mind the puzzle of a hand you can’t fix, Orbita does have its own appeal. The artwork gives it a nice table presence, and the length is perfect for a quick gaming moment without too much pressure.
📝 We received a copy of the game from Korea Boardgames.
