The best games presented at the Spiel 1996 game fair in Essen, Germany 2025

A variety of oddly-shaped wooden blocks is placed on a round wooden base. The base has a cork ball underneath, positioned on a conical stand. Players must carefully remove these oddly shaped pieces, risking the delicate balance of the setup. Larger pieces yield more points, but they also increase the chances of a spill, resulting in negative points.

Players build three types of districts in a developing city. In each round, one or two blocks are zoned based on player votes. The base score is determined by the number of completed adjacent blocks, but players must consider significant multipliers that affect certain types of developments placed next to each other.

Players roll dice and move their pieces on the board set in the former East Germany. The goal is to collect three items: a car, a phone, and a party membership. The first player to reach Wandlitz Square after gathering all three items wins the game.

Players engage in a bluffing game featuring a twist. Each of the 54 cards comes in three colors and is numbered 1-9, depicting snakes with or without fangs. Players obscure the toxicity of their chosen card by holding it above the snake's head, while scoring is influenced by whether the cards show fangs. After the first trick, participation in subsequent tricks is voluntary, and players must play cards of increasing value to take part. A small notepad is included for scorekeeping.

Players aim to gain control over companies represented by cards in this revenge-themed game. Each round, players earn income from companies where they have the most board members, roll three dice, and use them to introduce new companies, add board members to existing ones, or draw new cards.

Players navigate the German beer market, aiming to establish their beer brands in national markets. They must first master local and regional markets, ensuring everyone has access to beer while anticipating and developing the public’s taste.

Colored sticks of two lengths (short and long) are placed randomly on a game board representing a prison. These sticks cover prisoner tiles. On each turn, one player closes their eyes while another player removes a stick. The first player must then identify the location, size, and color of the removed stick. A player wins by collecting three prisoners of the same type or three different prisoners.

Another game from the "Bestseller Authors" series by Schmidt. Players travel along the coast of Zanzibar, trying to collect quadruples of specific goods. It was published as "Molukki" by Reinhold Wittig's company "Edition Perlhuhn."