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• Colt Express, from Christophe Raimbault and Ludonaute
• Machi Koro, from Masao Suganuma and KOSMOS
• The Game: Spiel...so lange du kannst!, from Steffen Benndorf and NSV
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I've highlighted each of these titles in BGG News posts, and I've included links below for those not familiar with the nominees. Overall, I can understand why each title was nominated for the Spiel des Jahres: Colt Express is a viciously chaotic game that's been a blast of fun every time it gets to the table. Players typically need one game to see the results of their moves unfold, to understand what can happen when everyone is doing things at roughly the same time. You're playing the other players and not just playing the game, so it helps to know what they're like and how eager they are to shoot you. The train play set seemed like a gimmick when I first learned about the game, but it's a gimmick that works, a gimmick that adds to the playing experience, and the upcoming expansion for Spiel 2015 seems to add even more to that staged interaction.
Machi Koro is the "old man" of this group, dating to 2012 for its initial release in Japan. In my overview from October 2013 before this game set the world on fire at Spiel 2013 and cemented the influence of Japanese game design on the larger industry, I dubbed the design "Catan writ small", and perhaps Machi Koro will follow that title down the path to a SdJ on Catan's twentieth anniversary.
As with Colt Express, Machi Koro is another design in which you can't go off in the corner and do your own thing; you must pay attention to the cards everyone else is acquiring to try to break up combos — but you're also at the mercy of the dice because despite whatever smart plans you might put into play, fate might be stacked against you.
The Game: Spiel...so lange du kannst! seems like the oddball in this group, the second coming of 2013 SdJ winner Hanabi in that it's a cooperative card game in a tiny box that places restrictions on what you can say during the game. At first glance the nomination doesn't fit with the earlier two because it sounds like a retread with a quiet spirit — but then I consider my play stats and realize that while I've played Colt Express and Machi Koro roughly a half-dozen times each, I'm closing in on sixty plays of The Game because my wife loves it and I love it and we take it everywhere with us and it works well as a solitaire design and yes, okay, I can see this winning, too.
The only drawback to The Game — aside from its thematic emptiness and quiet gameplay that will turn off some percentage of the potential audience — is the generic name that makes it tough to find. On BGG, search for "kannst" and the game, i.e. The Game, will be the first hit.
Other titles recommended by the SdJ jury in this game weight are Abraca...what?, Cacao, Loony Quest, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, Patchwork, and UGO! — fine choices all, with UGO! being the only question mark for me as I've played only once, liking the game but having a dickens of a time getting anything resembling a trick-taking game in front of local gamers.
The nominees for Kennerspiel des Jahres, the award intended for enthusiasts who want something a bit more challenging than the SdJ candidates, are:
• Broom Service, from Andreas Pelikan, Alexander Pfister and alea
• Elysium, from Brett Gilbert, Matthew Dunstan and Space Cowboys
• Orléans, from Reiner Stockhausen and dlp games
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My biggest surprise on this list is that Broom Service is available for purchase! We recorded an overview video at Spielwarenmesse in Nürnberg, but I had heard nothing about the game since then, perhaps due to the game being available right now only in Germany with German text on the cards. Apparently the English/French version of the game is due out in North America in mid-2015.
Recommended titles by the SdJ jury in the Kennerspiel weight are Deus, Fields of Arle and The Voyages of Marco Polo.
Nominees for the Kinderspiel des Jahres are:
• Push a Monster, from Wolfgang Dirscherl, Manfred Reindl and Queen Games
• Schatz-Rabatz, from Karin Hetling and Noris
• Spinderella, from Roberto Fraga and Zoch
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Schatz-Rabatz is a complete mystery to me, and we didn't even have it in the BGG database until a Noris representative submitted a listing this morning after the nominations were announced. Honestly, children's games are not the focus for many BGG users, so we tend to let those slide compared to getting other games in the DB. Sorry!
I edited the rules for Push a Monster from Queen, and it sounds like a fun little game that would tickle the dexterity game lover in me. Whether I'll actually play it at some point, well, who knows?
We did record an overview of Spinderella at Spielwarenmesse given that the title is from Zoch, and BGG users often want to know what's coming from them. Seems like a great gimmicky game along the lines of what Fraga has done previously:
Recommended titles from the Kinderspiel des Jahres jury are Chef Alfredo, Fliegenschmaus, Fröschlein aufgepasst!, Honigbienchen, Joe's Zoo, Schau mal! Was ist anders? and Der verdrehte Sprachzoo.
The Kinderspiel des Jahres winner will be announced on Monday, June 8, 2015 while the Sdj and KedJ winners will be announced on Monday, July 6, 2015. Congratulations to all the nominees!
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