Best games released at SPIEL 1991 in Essen 2026

Can't Stop is a classic dice game designed by Sid Sackson, renowned for its blend of luck, risk-taking, and tactical decision-making. It's a game that challenges players to wisely balance their boldness and caution as they aim to complete columns on the game board.

Players have several wooden discs representing hedgehogs, which they can place in one of six rows. On their turn, they roll a die, move one hedgehog left or right, and then advance any hedgehog in the row forward by one space. The aim is to be the first to get three out of four hedgehogs to the end of the board, while avoiding the black spaces where hedgehogs become trapped.

Players represent alien races attempting to expand across five foreign worlds. They challenge other players and seek assistance from interested parties. Unique alien powers allow players to bend or break game rules, adding strategic depth to the encounters. This edition includes significant changes, such as one-time-use tokens, categorized moons with varying impacts, and the introduction of new cards and mechanics.

A dexterity game with a touch of strategy. Players are tasked with building a monument in honor of the great god Prewt by stacking large stones. The challenge intensifies with quirky rituals, such as balancing the stone with the left hand while performing bizarre actions to avoid letting it fall.

Players assume the roles of editors who select various stories, such as politics, sports, and entertainment, for their newspapers. The value of a story is influenced by its timing and size. Later stories can earn more points, but only the largest story under a particular headline can score.

Players program and control a robot around a game board, aiming to eliminate other robots. Movement and action commands are placed using tiles on a programming board. Only effective programming and the ability to anticipate opponents' commands can lead to being the last robot standing.

The objective is to collect points by consuming duckweed. Each meal increases the strength of the animal of the corresponding color, while reducing the strength of the animal of the opposite color. Players aim to reach the best feeding spots and avoid stronger opponent animals on each turn.