10 award-winning games you should play once in your life

The “Game of the Year” award is very important for the games industry. Some of the prize winners of the past are now famous classic games that have had a decisive influence on the games market. Here are ten former “Game of the Year” games that you should check out.

It all started with David Parlett’s racing game “Hare and Hedgehog”. In 1979 it was the first “game of the year” ever. Originally, it was even chosen twice: the first time in 1978, but the then newly composed jury of critics failed to organize another award ceremony that year. So in 1979 there were elections again.

What was special about the game at the time was that the playing pieces did not move with dice, but with values ​​printed on playing cards, which has become relatively normal today – thanks in part to games like “Dog”. “Hare and Hedgehog” is currently out of print. If you really want to get it, you’ll have to settle for a used supply from the internet. Publisher Ravensburger will soon release a new edition.

Racing game by David Parlett for 2 to 6 players, ages 8 and up; about 60 minutes; Ravenburger; Currently not in stock.

This is clearly the most successful ‘game of the year’. Since winning the award in 1995, it has sold more than 27 million copies and is available worldwide in more than 39 languages. The game was originally called “The Settlers of Catan”. In 2015, on the occasion of its twentieth anniversary, it was renamed “Catan – The Game”.

There is now a large product family with various board games, expansions, digital games, fan articles and even a novel by Rebecca Gablé. The game was also featured in the American TV series The Big Bang Theory, and Facebook boss Marc Zuckerberg and other Silicon Valley luminaries are outspoken fans. What is it about? Explorers colonize an island, trade resources and build roads and settlements.

Development game by Klaus Teuber for 3 to 4 players, from 10 years; about 90 minutes; Kosmos Verlag; approx. 45 francs.

With «Zug um Zug», the «Game of the Year 2004», an entire product family has been created. While in the original game you only build railroads across the US, there are now over 20 different versions with other countries and continents. There is also a Swiss card and a special edition of train carriage cards showing only Märklin models.

Players collect cards of different types of wagons and try to connect cities by filling predetermined routes on the map with small 3D railway wagons. You can also be a little mean and slow down your teammates.

In addition to the entertaining gameplay, “Zug um Zug” is especially impressive for its illustrations and game materials, including 225 small, colorful plastic cars.

Train game by Alan R. Moon for 2 to 5 players, ages 8 and up; 30 to 60 minutes; Days of Wonder/Asmodee, approx. 50 francs.

The medieval fortress of the southern French city of Carcassonne inspired the then music and religion teacher Klaus Jürgen Wrede on a research trip to write a book about this game.

“Carcassonne” impressed the jury in 2001 with its simple elegance. The players build a landscape of streets, cities and monasteries with small square tiles and collect points with their characters as knights, monks, highwaymen or farmers.

“Carcassonne” was also the birth of specially shaped, wooden game figures, who later started their own career under the name “Meeple” and conquered the game world. New editions and expansions of «Carcassonne» continue to appear all the time.

Placement game by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede for 2 to 5 players, from 7 years old; about 35 minutes; Hans in happiness; about 30 francs.

The 2009 “Game of the Year” “Dominion” is one of the most complex in the history of the award. Game author Donald X. Vaccarino has founded an entirely new game genre, that of deck building games. Each player starts with an identical deck and tries to build a deck with an efficient “machine” of actions by buying new cards that are as suitable as possible.

The eleventh expansion is coming in August. All cards from all expansions can be combined with each other. According to Wikipedia, this results in (as of April 2017) 576,960,072,004,584,996 (i.e. nearly 577 trillion) possible combinations of different kingdoms.

Deck building game by Donald X. Vaccarino for 2 to 4 players, ages 10 and up; about 60 minutes; Rio Grande/Ace; about 50 francs.

Remember the scene in the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Dead Man’s Chest” where Orlando Bloom plays a dice game with the pirates on the Flying Dutchman? The game is nothing more than a slightly modified version of the 1993 “Game of the Year”; “Bluff”.

In the original it’s called “Liar’s Dice”, and it’s basically about lying and bluffing through a game round by correctly announcing the number of dice, with certain numbers hidden under dice cups. “Bluff” is one of the loosest and funniest “games of the year”. You can safely assign it to the party games category. Even after 25 years it hasn’t aged a bit.

Richard Borg dice game for 2 to 6 players, from 10 years old; about 30 minutes; Ravenburger; about 40 francs.

In 2016’s Game of the Year, two teams from different secret services compete against each other to crack an opposing code.

«Code Names» is particularly suitable for people who like to juggle associations, word games and solving logic puzzles. The goal is to paraphrase as many words as possible with one term, without referring to competitors’ words. With this game it is always possible to get people to play who otherwise do not like to play.

Word game by Vlaada Chvátil for 2 to 8 players, from 10 years old; about 15 minutes; Czech Games Edition/Asmodee; about 25 francs.

“Qwirkle” is one of the easiest “games of the year” to learn, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Forming rows of tiles with colored symbols puts analytical and combinatorial tactical demands on the players that should not be underestimated, even if the luck factor is relatively high as the tiles are drawn from a bag.

Game of the Year 2011 is reminiscent of «Scrabble» in terms of gameplay, simply without letters. When placing the stones, the shapes must be identical but the colors different, or the colors must be identical but the shapes different.

Lgame by Susan McKinley Ross for 2 to 4 players, ages 6 and up; about 30 minutes; Schmidt games; about 40 francs.

“Hanabi” is both the most unusual and the smallest game to win the award to date. Because all players hold their cards upside down in their hands. You don’t know which cards you have, only the other players recognize them and have to give you hints so that you play the right card.

The 2013 “Game of the Year” comes in a small card game box and is played cooperatively. The word “Hanabi” is Japanese and means “fireworks”. Players must create one by playing the right cards at the right time, which is an original challenge that is hard to compare to other gaming experiences.

Cooperative card game by Antoine Bauza for 2 to 5 players, from 8 years old; about 30 minutes; abacus games; about 10 francs.

Haha! Cleaned up. It wasn’t even “Game of the Year”, but the first “Kennerspiel of the Year” in 2011. The Kennerspiel Prize was introduced at the time to also do justice to games that have a higher level.

Up to seven players can participate in «7 Wonders». With playing cards you have to build a wonder of the world. Its particular appeal stems from the game mechanic of “drafting”. The players each choose one card from a hand and must pass the rest to their neighbors. This always leads to an interesting dilemma: secure good cards yourself or make sure your opponent doesn’t get a strong card?

Developing game by Antoine Bauza for 2 to 7 players, from 10 years old; about 30 minutes; repositories; about 50 francs.