It's that time of year again, the Spiel Des Jahres (as well as the Kenner and Kinder Spiel) nominees have been announced, setting the gaming world ablaze with speculation and opinions. Let's take a look at them!

Spiel Nominees:

Azul
The Mind
Luxor

Kennerspiel Nominees:

Die Quacksalber von Quedlinburg
Ganz schon Clever
Heaven & Ale

Kinderspiel Nominees:

Emojito
Funkelschatz
Panic Mansion

Neither of us have played any of the nominees this year—though Azul has shown up at game night many times.

Designer Wolfgang Warsch has three games nominated across the categories, which is remarkable because he’s only had two games published before 2018—neither of which we’d ever even heard of.

Its also important to note that Pandemic Legacy Season 2 won a special award due to the massive influence that system has had on gaming. According to the Spiel judges, it’s the game that all Legacy games will be measured against, so worthy of special praise. This sort of recognition hasn’t happened since 2010.

Have you played any of the nominees? What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments, and thanks for reading!