Well, it’s that time of year again when the shortlisted games are nominated for the three Spiel Des Jahres categories:- Spiel des Jahres 2025 (General), Kennerspiel des Jahres 2025 (Critics) and Kinderspiel des Jahres 2025 (Children).
All three winners will be announced on July 13, 2025 in Berlin.
The Spiel des Jahres 2025 nominations are :-
Bomb Busters – designer Hishashi Hayashi and published by Pegasus
Flip 7 – designed by Eric Olsen and published by KOSMOS
Krakel Orakel – designed by the 7 Bazis (smart guys) collective
Bomb Busters is a deductive game with artwork in the same cutsey rabbit vein as Kosmos’s previous SDJ winner Micro Macro Crime City.
Flip 7 is a small box, push your luck, family card game well liked by Tora FavouriteFoe in her ZATU review.
Krakel Orakel is a sort of Pictionary/Dixit cross. You have to depict a word given you upon a card by filling lines on a pre-printed doodle pad and try to guess who drew what. Note: I believe this is only in German at the moment and is not listed by ZATU
Overall I feel the three are at the simpler end of the market, with two aimed at 8+ and only Bomb Busters at 10+, but also thankfully cheaper.
The Kennerspiel des Jahres 2025 nominations are :-
Endeavor: Deep Sea – by Carl de Visser and Jarratt Gray published by Frosted Games / Board Game Circus / Burnt Island Games / Grand Gamers Guild
Faraway – by Johannes Goupy and Corentin Lebrat published by KOSMOS
Looot – by Charles Chevallier and Laurent Escoffier published by Gigamic
Endeavor: Deep Sea is a follow-up to Endeavor: Age of Sail!, set in modern times with a similar but streamlined set of the rules. Neil Parker gave it an 88% review
Faraway is a gorgeously illustrated tableau building game that you play through in both directions. Surprisingly deep for a small box game. Callum Dunkeld gave it 84% in his review.
Looot is a resource gathering and tile placement game in a similar vein to Akropolis but set in Norwegian Fjords. As a 10+ game playable in 30 minutes it seems fine but a bit light for the heavyweight category to me.
Given that some of the main nominations are for children from 8 or 10 years old and up, I wondered what the Children’s category would bring. So here they are with age rating and publisher description.
The Kinderspiel des Jahres 2025 nominations are :-
Cascadia Junior by Fertessa Allyse und Randy Flynn Illustration: Beth Sobel published by KOSMOS Natural tile laying for 2 to 4 children aged 6+
Die Mäusebande (Le Clan des Souris) by Christophe Lauras Illustration: Marie Desbons and published by Game Factory / Débâcle Jeux Mice on a cooperative memo mission for 2 to 5 children aged 4+ or 6+
Topp die Torte by Wolfgang Warsch published Illustration: Michael Verdu by Schmidt Multi-layered baking for 2 to 4 children aged 6+
I know nothing about any of these three and only Cascadia Junior is listed on ZATU as coming in July. I’m presuming it’s a simplified version of Cascadia. Personally I’m taking games like this and making my own ways of playing with my granddaughter currently 3 and a half.
So those are this year’s prospects. Speaking for myself I’m a bit underwhelmed. I’d have liked to see SETI up there. What would you choose as the winner?
