Spiel Des Jahres & Kennerspiel 2021 Winners Announced

Spiel Des Jahres is the most coveted of board game awards, and today has announced the winner of both the Spiel Des Jahres (game of the year) and Kennerspiel des Jahres (expert game of the year). 

For the Spiel Des Jahres, the winner is MicroMacro: Crime City, a game reminiscent of Where's Wally where you're searching a large image for clues to answer various prompts. You can read our review from the magazine here. 

The judges comments were as follows: "A large black-and-white poster and a few cards – that’s all “MicroMacro: Crime City” needs to captivate players. When they lean in over the table to take in the whole scene, you can cut the tension with a knife. Everyone’s eyes flit over the city map, trying to reveal new information about the crime. Heated discussions between players about motives and evidence can created truly unforgettable moments." 

For the Kennerspiel, the 'expert' game of the year, the winner was Paleo. We reviewed this back in issue 52, and you can read that here. This game transports you back to the hunter gatherer days, and centres around cards. 

The judges said of it: "It’s extraordinary how “Paleo” manages to create dynamic stories and images in the players’ minds that will stay there long after the game has ended. Through the relentless struggle for survival we learn that we are only as strong as the group. The variety of different events keeps our curiosity piqued through several playthroughs and rewards the exploration of this exciting and unforgiving stone age world."

These follow the announcement of the Kinderspiel, with Dragomino winning the coveted title. 

If you want to see who these winners were against in the nominations, check out the below video!