The winners of what is probably the equivalent of the board game Oscars have been announced. For those that don’t know the Spiel des Jahres is an annual award handed out by a jury of critics for being the best family friendly of the year. It’s been handed out since 1978, which is a long time in board game history some of my favourite winners have included Dominion, Just One, Azul and Cascadia. Since 2011, they’ve also awarded a Connoisseur game of the year or Kennerspiel, which was first won by 7 Wonders and other notable winners have included Terraforming Mars, Istanbul, Wingspan and Lost Ruins of Arnak. It’s a big deal in board gaming and the winners, and runners up will all likely see big increases in the number of copies sold.
The winner of the Spiel des Jahres this year was Bomb Busters! With the runners up being Krakel Orakel and Flip 7. I’ve not played Krakel Orakel but have spent quite a bit of time with the other two, and although Flip 7 is probably my party game of the year, Bomb Busters is a deserved winner. Bomb Busters is a wonderful cooperative game about working together to diffuse a bomb, with a series of scenarios to play through that get more and more complex. It creates some wonderful tense moments but is full of lots of fun and isn’t too serious or long to play so it doesn’t matter if you fail a round as it is quick and easy to set up and go again. On the recommended list, I can definitely say I’m surprised Castle Combo didn’t make the final shortlist, and Cities is also excellent.
The winner of the Kennerspiel was Endeavor Deep Sea with the runners up being Faraway and Looot. I haven’t played Looot, but own both Endeavor Deep Sea and Faraway. There is certainly a big jump up in complexity from Faraway to Endeavor Deep Sea, but both are really wonderful games, with the latter being my favourite game of the year so far. Also nominated was the Gang which is a fantastic cooperative take on Texas Holdem Poker.
What do you think of this years’ winners? Should they have won and what would you have chosen? For me I think they got the winners spot on, although I would have maybe shortlisted some other games and I think the Kennerspiel category is maybe too narrow to pick up everything that isn’t family weight which shows in the final games selected.
