Four days, more than 1,300 games and only so much luggage space? Chris Marling sorts the wheat from the chaff at Germany’s monster games event
Despite having attended Essen Spiel annually since 2012, the con never fails to surprise, wow and generally entertain. This year was no different, with a record number of new games (more than 1,300), a record number of attendees on each of its four sold-out days (220,000 total), and its largest ever square footage (covering 77,500 m2). Nothing comes close to comparing to it in terms of scale, as well as exciting new releases.
I’ll begin with a caveat. While I’m calling this a hotness list of sorts, please consider that with 50 countries represented among 948 exhibitors, many games only available in German, and more than 1,000 games to choose from, ‘subjective’ doesn’t begin to describe it. What I can promise you is that I have spoken to many gamers and publishers, witnessed numerous queues and ‘sold out’ signs, and read enough rule books to last a lifetime. I even got to play a few things! And I did call Flip 7 this time last year, so I have that in the win column.
My biggest takeaway from Essen Spiel 2025 was actually about box sizes (yes, I’m a fascinating guy – a real catch!). Except for the excellent two-player behemoth Kikai: Bricolage Heads (which came in a ridiculous but beautiful coffin box), most of the games I brought home were in boxes smaller than the space in your Ikea Kallax. Better still, once I’d popped the games, they tended to snuggly fit the box they lived in.
I presume the reasons for this are largely political/business-related, such as Brexit and tariffs, but if it means I can get more games in my suitcase (and by extension my limited game space at home), then more’s the better. It could also be seen as a reflection of the declining importance of retail shelf space, with players increasingly buying online.
Going back to the games, these were the titles I had the most fun with over the show and that the people I played with enjoyed the most. Plus, I barely heard a bad word about them.
Borealis (Lucky Duck)
I’m sure being on the cover of the Essen Spiel version of Spielbox magazine would’ve helped sales, but wow, what a game. Beautiful art, simple rules, but an absolute brainburner. You are trying to plan your moves in advance while paying careful attention to your opponents’ motives. My hit of the show.
Kokeshi (Grand Gamers Guild)
This super-cute abstract tile game sees you building columns of actions on your player board that you trigger to get more tiles or advance animals for extra bonuses. It seems simple, but it is much more than the sum of its parts, with both careful planning and tactical nous being rewarded. It’s available on Board Game Arena.
Ruins (Allplay)
Remember the card-crafting system from the big hit Mystic Vale? It’s back here in a shedding/climbing game which works brilliantly, allowing you to upgrade cards to make super cards and also claim some of them for later rounds (so you get them, no matter who draws them. A little fiddly but a lot of fun too.
These games sold out over the weekend, seemingly due to demand rather than having a tiny number of copies available.
Bluffit (Gameplay Publishing ApS)
A light card game that punches well above its weight, being a brilliant take on a basic bluffing game. Special cards make each round unique and add just enough to keep you coming back for more.
Ants (Cranio Creations)
There were precious few copies of this left as I was leaving on Sunday, an hour before the doors closed. A heavy worker-management, action-selection euro with great table presence.
Tornado Splash (Arclight Games)
A really pretty and light hand-management card game, where you try to make your cute animal skidoo driver win the race. While simple, balancing speed and control makes it a fun experience, and asymmetric special abilities seal the deal.
Ghost Lift (Engames)
Wonderfully spooky artwork and funky ghost meeples give the game a lovely table presence. It’s essentially a shedding/climbing card game, with the lift element changing the direction you can play cards.
Fairplay is an independent German board game magazine with more than 150 issues in the bank. It has a stand at Essen Spiel each year and encourages its readers to give ratings to the games they play at the show. These are compiled throughout the weekend, with the results printed late on Sunday afternoon. This year’s winners were:
This certainly aligned with my experience, as both Kingdom Crossing (super cute light euro) and small card game Snake Charmers (Cockroach Poker meets Werewolf) were hits with my groups at the show, while Boss Fighter QR does a great job of compiling a cool app with a solid co-op card-battler experience. Compile was available in German for the first time, so it was also a deserving winner (it’s already in the top 1,000 games on BGG).
BGG compiles a list of games being released at Essen Spiel, and then asks visitors to ‘thumb’ the games they’re excited about. The games with more than 1,000 thumbs were:
Orloj: The Prague Astronomical Clock (Perro Loko Games)
Limited stock on Thursday saw huge queues for Orloj, but thankfully, more arrived on Friday to soothe the rabid hordes. It’s a beautiful mid-weight euro game already getting rave reviews.
Recall (Alion)
The spiritual follow-up to 2022’s massive hit Revive was one of the games I saw most in bags as I wandered the halls. It has the same gorgeous art style and looks just as crunchy from the demo we got.
SETI: Space Agencies (CGE)
This expansion for one of last year’s biggest hits, SETI, adds exactly what fans wanted. More of everything, plus Terraforming Mars: Prelude-style corporations that boost your initial income and add asymmetry to get the game cooking faster.
Feya’s Swamp (Fractal Juegos)
The new game from one of the Terra Mystica designers was always going to be a big deal, and this is living up to the hype. Gorgeous art and simple yet strategic gameplay saw massive queues form each morning for the limited copies available.
Asmodee had a massive presence at Essen Spiel and showed off some of the genuinely hottest games of the weekend. The ones to watch were:
Take Time (Libeludd)
Think The Game and The Mind, in terms of co-operative card play with limited information, but with a unique feel, some clever twists, and gorgeous artwork.
Ink (Final Score Games)
This beautiful abstract has stunning production, but the clever tile-laying mechanisms are legit. However, it is a relatively simple family game, so experienced gamers are unlikely to find much here.
Star Wars: Battle of Hoth (Days of Wonder)
What can you say? Reskinning a more than 20-year-old, average-at-best light war game (Memoir 44) seems crazy. But, if the reskin theme is the best battle scene in Star Wars ever? Licence to print galactic credits.
Sorry if I missed your ‘best of show’ picks here, but as I mentioned above, choosing the best games of Essen Spiel is no easy task. Do let us know of the hidden gems you’ve found, or the games you’re most looking forward to as they start to appear in retail now that the show is over.