Best games released at SPIEL 1990 in Essen 2026

Players answer questions, perform charades, or sculpt objects from clay in this party game. The first hippo to cross the finish line wins, encountering funny tasks and crazy events along the way. A standard game lasts about an hour, but rules for a 30-minute version are also included.

The theme of airlines is exactly as the title suggests. Players compete to become majority shareholders in several highly abstracted companies, with the player holding the most valuable portfolio winning at the end. Each round, players choose between expanding an airline to increase its value or playing stocks from their hand. However, when a valuation card appears, only played stocks count as a player's ownership.

Players must understand themselves in a psychological game. Each game begins with players preparing their personal game board by selecting a card representing their zodiac sign and placing red points accordingly. Over twelve rounds, players draw cards that align with their personalities, aiming to accumulate points by fulfilling specific conditions and distributing them wisely across various areas.

Players build towers and the first to place their six flagpoles on six towers of different heights (ranging from six blocks high down to one block high) wins the game.

Eon Borderlands is designed to condense diplomacy into a manageable timeframe, where political maneuvering is essential and a free market society fuels ambition for conquest. The game combines conflict and trade mechanics with resource management, drawing inspiration from Settlers of Catan. The German edition, Ascalion, includes elements from both Borderlands expansions.

This 18xx game takes the basic mechanics of Tresham's 1829 and introduces new elements. Players aim to earn the most money by buying and selling shares of various railroad companies on a German map. The game board features an abstract hexagonal system with track tiles placed on the fields. Players manipulate shares, but the stock manipulation aspect is less harsh than in 1830. The game ends when the bank runs out of money, and the player with the highest personal wealth wins.

Amphoren oder Das Zehn Vasen Spiel is a stone collection game set on a 7x7 grid filled with 40 stones, including 10 amphora images. Players move 2 or 3 spaces in a turn and can pick up the last stone they played. The goal is to collect complete sets of amphora stones, with a complete set worth 4 points, while ensuring that only sets of 3 or more are safe from being stolen.