In a first-ever occurrence at the Spiel Des Jahres awards, a two-player cooperative game has been crowned the 2024 Game of the Year. It comes as little surprise to anyone following the game, though, and it was even one of Boar Gamer’s most anticipated Essen Spiel 2023 board games, where it went on to sell like hotcakes.
Sky Team, designed by Luc Rémond and published by Scorpion Masqué is a cooperative title where two players take on the roles of a pilot and co-pilot working together to land a passenger plane at various challenging airports around the world. The game features a unique shared dice mechanism where players must communicate non-verbally to manage flight controls, handle unexpected obstacles, and try to ensure a safe landing. It’s an intense and captivating experience, and certainly one of the more unique games we’ve seen in recent years.
The game’s short rounds are both challenging and rewarding and players are encouraged to replay scenarios to improve their performance and get better scores. The beautifully designed cockpit console and thematic components further enhance the gaming experience – this is about as close as we’re getting to the real thing without going through serious training and years of practice on simulators before anyone lets us land actual planes!
Sky Team edged out other notable nominees for the Spiel Des Jahres award, including In the Footsteps of Darwin and Captain Flip. In other categories, Daybreak (another cooperative game focused on fighting climate change) won the Kennerspiel des Jahres (Expert Game of the Year), and Magic Keys took home the Kinderspiel des Jahres (Children’s Game of the Year).
For more details on Sky Team and the other two winners, you can visit the official Spiel Des Jahres website or read about them on BoardGameGeek. Congratulations to all of this year’s champions and stay tuned here at Boar Gamer for more coverage on these great games!