Best games released at SPIEL 2026 in Essen

Cozy Stickerville is a gentle adventure and village-building game by Corey Konieczka for 1-6 players, recommended from age 8. Families explore a growing valley together, add buildings, animals, shops, farms, and personal touches with more than 800 stickers, and watch their own village take shape over several relaxed sessions. It is especially appealing for children who enjoy creative choices and parents who like shared storytelling without pressure.

Flip 7: With A Vengeance is the meaner standalone follow-up to the push-your-luck card game Flip 7. Built for 3 or more players who enjoy risk and messing with friends.

Wingspan Pocket is a smaller, faster card game version of Elizabeth Hargrave's bird classic Wingspan, published by Stonemaier Games. It plays in about 25 to 35 minutes and is rated for ages 8 and up. If you love Wingspan but rarely have time for a full game, this small box gives you the core feel in a fraction of the time.

Moon Colony Bloodbath by Donald X. Vaccarino sends families and gaming groups to a moon colony that was supposed to be perfectly planned. Supplies are packed, robots are ready, and the first buildings are in place, but life beyond Earth quickly proves unstable. This strategic card game is best suited to teens aged 14 and up and adults who enjoy science fiction, dry humor, and smart resource management.

DaDaDa is a light party game where you invent a brand-new made-up language together every time and try to guess its words.

Moustache is a quick trick-taking card game for 3 to 6 players aged 10 and up where teams reshuffle every round. It works well for families and friends.

Positano is a family game for 1 to 4 players where you build resorts on a three-dimensional cliffside and fight for the best sea view. Games take 20 to 45 minutes and teach quickly.

Dragon Overload is a quick card game for exactly two players aged 8 and up, designed by Jay Bendixen and published by Lookout Games in its eco-friendly GreenLine series. In just 15 minutes you compete with dragon cards for control of five landscapes. A good pick for couples who want a short, tactical duel with a bit of bluff.

The Peak Team is a cooperative game by Scott Almes for 1 to 5 players aged 10 and up. As wildlife rangers, you protect a mountain reserve, and a tiered level system makes each session tougher than the last.

Last Lemming is a cheeky trick-taking game by Marco Teubner for 3 to 6 players aged 10 and up. Push your lemming toward the cliff edge, but not over it.

Kilauea is a light-to-medium tactical game for 2 to 4 players aged 10 and up. You build tiki towers to honor the volcano goddess Pele. Great for families.

In Frosted Blooms, children and adults create their own tulip garden in a gentle Dutch spring landscape. This family game for ages 8 and up combines calm planning with colorful tile placement. Round by round, a garden of flowers, paths, and special features takes shape, with every turn offering small decisions and fresh opportunities.

Ayar: Children of the Sun is a mid-weight euro for 1 to 4 players aged 14 and up that retells the Inca origin myth. It suits players who love planning puzzles.

Last Minute is a cooperative real-time card game for 1 to 4 players aged 8 and up. Your team has to defuse a string of bombs before a very short timer runs out.

Raas: A Dance of Love is a light-to-medium strategy game by Mihir Shah and Shaleen Harlalka for two to six players aged 14 and up, published in German by Pegasus Spiele. You assemble a troupe for the Gujarati folk dance Raas by drafting dice dancers from a spinning, gear-driven board; games take 30 to 90 minutes.

Tax the Rich is a cheeky trick-taking game by Kristian Amundsen Østby and Kjetil Svendsen. It suits 3 to 6 players aged 14 and up who like card games with political bite.

Furnace Duel is the two-player follow-up to the industry game Furnace: bid, build a network and run engines, either standalone or as a campaign across six boards.

Everdell Emerland is a standalone game set in the world of Everdell, designed by James A. Wilson and Clarissa A. Wilson (German edition: Pegasus Spiele). It is rated 10+ and plays in 30 to 120 minutes. It combines worker placement with playing cards into your own jungle city.

Tag Team: Arthur's Legacy brings six new Fighters from Arthurian legend to the two-player card brawler Tag Team. Like every Tag Team box it is compatible with the base game and the other expansions; Kosmos sells it as playable standalone. Ages 10+, 15 to 20 minutes – a quick cross between an auto battler and a deckbuilder by Gricha German, Corentin Lebrat, Florian Sirieix and Benoit Turpin.

Covenant is a demanding strategy game for 1 to 4 players aged 14 and up, where dwarven clans reclaim their sacred mountain.

Molecools is a small HABA card game for 2 to 5 players aged 8 and up. You split and combine numbered element cards and race to be the first to reach 21 points.

World Order is a heavy strategy game about 2010s geopolitics for 2 to 4 players aged 14+, where the USA, China, Russia and the EU compete for global influence.

Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons – Ravenloft is a standalone entry in Ravensburger's cooperative Horrified series and its second D&D game. Peter Lee and Nick Tourville send you to Barovia with four new monsters. For 1 to 5 players aged 10+, about 60 minutes – solo play included.

Molly House is a semi-cooperative card game by Jo Kelly and Cole Wehrle about London's queer molly subculture in the early 1700s, for 1 to 5 players aged 14 and up.

Duel of Meloch is a standalone duel by Jamey Stegmaier that merges Scythe and Expeditions into a 45-minute head-to-head game for 1 to 2 players aged 14 and up (German edition: Feuerland Spiele). If you know either game, you can sit down and play.

BigWig is a quick trick-taking card game from HABA for 2 to 6 players aged 8 and up. Everyone plays cards face down at the same time, and the trumps keep shifting.

In ANTS you dig, explore and forage to expand your anthill and strengthen the colony – a demanding strategy game about the life of ants.

Cascadia: Alpine Lakes is the standalone follow-up to Cascadia for 1 to 4 players aged 10+, where stackable tiles let your landscape grow upwards.

Toshi: Die blühende Stadt is a tile-laying game by Friedemann Friese for 1 to 4 players aged 8+. Everyone builds a Japanese town at the same time.

Rooms & Roomies is a tile-laying game for 1 to 5 players aged 10 and up. You shop for furniture, load your van and furnish a shared flat that keeps your roommates happy. The happiest home at the end wins.

Veggie Match from Pegasus Spiele is a quick card-placement game for 3 to 6 players aged 8 and up. You plant vegetables in your own field or your neighbours' and try to line up three of a kind. A game takes about 15 minutes.

Street Art is a brisk card game by Reiner Knizia for 2 to 6 players aged 8+. As street performers, you compete for the biggest crowd in 15 minutes.

Dragon's Roll (German title: Würfeldrachen) is a cooperative dice game by Mads L. Brynnum from HABA for 2 to 4 players aged 8 and up. Together you defend a kingdom against dragon hordes and their Master Dragons – in about 20 minutes, with an optional campaign. It belongs to the world of HABA's King of the Dice.

The Anniversary Edition of EXIT "The Perfect Heist" is an escape-room game for 1 to 4 players aged 12+ who team up to crack a casino vault.

Spirits of Valenor is a cooperative card game for 2 to 4 players with 15 connected chapters. As nature spirits, you defend your valley from invaders together, with each game taking 30 to 40 minutes.

Cubaneo is an economic game by Michael Rieneck and Stefan Stadler from Deep Print Games and Pegasus Spiele, set in Cuba before the Revolution. For ages 12 and up and playing in 75 to 120 minutes, you trade goods, ship them from the harbour, construct buildings and push acts through parliament – a gamer's game of auctions, markets and voting.

Jurassic Zoo is a flip-and-write game by Phil Walker-Harding and Matthew Dunstan for 1 to 6 players aged 8 and up. Number cards tell you what size of fence to draw on your sheet as you try to keep free-roaming dinosaurs apart.

Spyworld is a roll-and-write game for 2 to a very large number of players aged 8 and up. As would-be world rulers, you build secret lairs and spy on your rivals' plans. Everyone plays at once, and a game takes about 30 minutes.

Professor Boom is a Reiner Knizia tile-laying game with a push-your-luck edge: pack your lab with dangerous experiments before it blows up. For 2 to 4 players aged 8 and up.

The Game of Birds is a card game from KOSMOS for 2 to 4 players aged 10+, in which you act as conservationists protecting threatened birds. It was designed by author Robert Macfarlane together with Michael Rieneck, and its structure draws on the "Seven Wonders" of birdlife: Nest, Flight, Feather, Egg, Beak, Migration and Song. A good choice for families looking for a nature-themed set-collection game.

Orbita is a tactical card duel for two: as rival astronomers, you steer four planets along their orbits and fight for control.

Greenwood is a fantasy strategy game for 1 to 4 players aged 14+, where Primal Spirits rescue magical creatures and borrow each other's abilities.

Traitors Aboard: One Piece is a hidden-role bluffing and deduction game set in the One Piece universe, a themed edition of Traitors Aboard from SAVANA. Three to eight players aged 10 and up play a round in about 20 minutes. If you like hidden identities and heated table talk, this is a compact, travel-sized option.

Perfect Tour is a tile-laying game by Günter Burkhardt from Schmidt Spiele: pin your holiday snapshots to a world map, for 1 to 5 players aged 8 and up.

Secret Museum is a collecting and tile-laying game by Matthias Cramer and Werner Schmitt: buy rare artifacts, spot the fakes and stage an exhibition. For 2 to 4 players aged 10 and up.

Nix Da! is a word-explaining party game for three to eight players aged 8 and up. Describe words in teams without ever using one forbidden letter.

The Crew: Journey to the Ends of the Earth is the latest cooperative trick-taking game from Thomas Sing, for 2 to 5 players aged 10 and up. Across a 25-stage journey, you race around the world hunting for Charlemagne's secret treasure.

Maybe. Not. Perfect! is a cooperative word and association game for 2 to 6 players aged 8 and up. One clue fits one profession perfectly, a second a little, and a third not at all. A game takes 15 to 20 minutes.

Trash Poker from Corax Games is a card game for 1 to 4 players aged 12 and up, inspired by the video game Balatro. You play poker hands, reshape your deck and throw away the cards you don't want. No poker experience needed.

Munchkin: Vox Machina sends the cheeky Munchkin card game into the world of Critical Role, based on the show's first campaign.

Pixie Time from HABA is a cooperative real-time game for 2 to 6 kids aged 8+. Together you catch cheeky pixies before the shared hourglass runs out.

Dorfromantik: South Seas is a standalone campaign for the cooperative tile-laying Dorfromantik series, set on a tropical island paradise. It suits groups who want to build landscapes together and unlock new content over many sessions.

Flamme Rouge: Champion Edition is a new take on Asger Aleksandrov Granerud's 2016 cycling race game Flamme Rouge. The big box includes the previously separate Peloton and Meteo expansions, adds new features such as Challengers and Achievements, and comes with a storage system that holds all Flamme Rouge content. A stage takes 30 to 45 minutes and the game is rated for ages 8 and up.

Flixo is a cooperative card game by Friedemann Friese from 2F-Spiele, for ages 8 and up and about 20–30 minutes. It takes the idea behind classic "Golf" card games – end up with as few, low-value cards as possible – and turns it into a team effort against cursed numbers. The English/German edition suits anyone who wants to play familiar card-game mechanics together rather than against each other.

Onitama: Big Box packs the elegant two-player martial arts duel together with all three expansions and 14 promo cards. It suits anyone who wants a fast, luck-free strategy game with plenty of room to explore.

Forest Shuffle: Smoky Mountains is the third standalone game in Kosch's Forest Shuffle series, published by Lookout Games. After Central Europe in the original and southern England in Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor, it moves to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North America. For 2 to 5 players aged 10 and up, about 60 minutes.

The Gang: Deluxe Edition is the premium box of the co-op poker game The Gang, with its expansions and room for up to ten players.

Familiar Feat is a quick solo-only deck-building adventure by Friedemann Friese. A game takes 20 to 30 minutes and is rated for ages 10 and up; the German edition comes from Deep Print Games and Pegasus Spiele. It is worth a look if you want a compact fairy-tale solo game whose difficulty ramps up level by level.

Orkney: Die schottischen Inseln is a tile-laying game: sail along the Scottish coast, place island tiles and build farms and castles.

Citadels Duel is a two-player take on the classic Citadels. It mixes bluffing, character drafting and city building into a tight head-to-head duel for ages 14 and up.

In Batman: Gotham City Crimes, two to four players team up to hunt supervillains. A cooperative detective adventure from KOSMOS for comic fans and families.

Panorama is a relaxed tile-laying game for two to four players aged 8 and up. From a hot-air balloon, you build the finest view in about 20 minutes.

Scotland Yard Duel from Ravensburger turns the hunt for Mister X into a compact duel for exactly two players aged 8+, played in 10 to 30 minutes.

Dorfromantik: Head to Head is a tile-laying game for exactly two players aged 8+, published by Pegasus Spiele, in which you compete in a friendly 15–30 minute duel for the finest landscape. Michael Palm and Lukas Zach turn the cooperative Dorfromantik series into a head-to-head contest and add new scoring for mountains and lakes. A good pick for couples and for Dorfromantik fans who want a competitive version.

Spell is a cooperative party game for 2 to 6 players aged 8+: one person guesses a secret word while the others spell out clues without conferring.

Minecraft: Digging Down is a cooperative cave adventure: together you hunt diamonds and defeat Endermen before the torches run out.

Carcassonne Labyrinth fuses two classics into a light family game for 1 to 4 players aged 8 and up. You shift the maze and build your own landscape.

Kalypso is a tile-laying survival game set in a world swallowed by the sea. 1 to 4 players aged 14 and up build floating settlements, solo, cooperatively or competitively. A good fit for anyone who loves spatial puzzles.

Thron der Lügen ("Throne of Lies") is a tactical card game for 3 to 6 players aged 8 and up, full of scheming at the fae royal court. The first to reach ten points claims the throne. A game takes about 30 minutes.

Deckscape: The Academy of Magic is the 13th entry in the popular escape-room card series. You work together, crack puzzles and try to pass your final exam at Moonstone Academy. For 1 to 6 players aged 12 and up.

Wolfmoon from Pegasus Spiele is an interactive bluffing and deduction card game for 3 to 6 players aged 8 and up. A powerful werewolf hides among honest and shady characters. Who stays hidden and keeps control?

Wireless from Spielefaible is a strategy game for 1 to 4 players aged 14 and up. As inventors around 1900, you race to build the world's first wireless networks. A solid pick for experienced players who enjoy network building and tight timing.

No Shelf Control is a light card game for book lovers. 2 to 5 players aged 8 and up stack books by colour on their shelf and hope it doesn't come crashing down. A cheerful push-your-luck game in about 20 minutes.

Labyrinth: Chronicles turns Ravensburger’s classic into a cooperative campaign game with a 3D board. It plays two to four people aged 8 and up.

Fragments: Fungataï is a narrative adventure where you piece the story together with jigsaw pieces. For one to four players aged 10 and up.

Bloom Kingdom is a clever card game for 2 to 5 players aged 8 and up. Everyone plays cards into a shared display at the same time, hoping the last two cards left in their own hand end up worth the most.

Capy Cabana is a cooperative memory game from Ravensburger for kids aged 5 and up. Together you keep the lazy river of a jungle water park flowing.

Alebrijes is a quick shedding card game for 3 to 5 players aged 8+: empty your hand first and use special cards to wreck your opponents' combinations.

Codenames: Critical Role Adventures is a fully cooperative Codenames set in Exandria for 2 to 4 players aged 10 and up, with campaigns and characters who level up.

Game Snacks is HABA's series of bite-sized memory games for 2 to 4 players aged 6+: remember where the snack tiles are and finish your set first.

Fourth Wing: Choose Your Dragon brings Rebecca Yarros's fantasy bestseller to the table: 2 to 4 players face three trials to win a dragon's bond.

Dicecream is a light dice game for two to four players aged 8 and up. You build sundaes from flavours and toppings and can use other players’ dice too.

Wine & Cheese is a strategy game for exactly two players. You run farms in Burgundy and only win if wine and cheese earn you money in equal measure.

Happy Rainbow is a cheerful dice game from HABA for children aged 3 and up. Two to four kids collect coloured arches until their rainbow is complete.

Spooky Bar is a quick card and bluffing game for 2 to 4 players aged 8 and up, where you run a haunted bar. You want to draw guests in with spooky vibes without scaring them off. A game lasts 15 to 20 minutes.

Heartbeats is a music party game for 2 to 6 players aged 16+: match hits to life moments and guess which song your friends picked.

Dancing Birds is a colourful card game by Dirk Henn for 2 to 4 players aged 8 and up. If you know Rummy, you'll feel at home right away: collect bird cards and lay them out as choreographies and dance groups.

River Rivals is a quick card duel for exactly two players aged 8 and up. Two animal clans clash on the riverbank over the best fish. The first to catch eight fish wins.

Salaryman Madness from HABA's XOXO line is a frantic maths card game for 2 to 4 players aged 10+. Everyone plays at once, and cool heads win.

HiLo Plus expands the card game HiLo with more cards and new action cards. It gets more tactical, yet the rules stay light.

Kniffel 8 is the classic dice game played with eight dice instead of five. A quick family game for two to four that gives Yahtzee veterans a new challenge.

Next Station: Berlin is a flip-and-write game in which you design the best metro network in Germany's capital. Quick to learn, quick to play.

Shout the Clue is a cooperative real-time party game from Pegasus: everyone shouts hints at once while one player decodes the words. For 3 to 6 players aged 8 and up.