There was a lot of noise when the 2014 Spiel des Jahres awards were handed out. The Spiel are the German Game of the Year awards and are generally considered the most prestigious award in the board game industry. There are three different categories in this competition. The Speil des Jahres: game of the year. The Kennerspiel des Jahres: heavy/complex game of the year and the Kinderspiel des Jahres: kids game of the year.
So what was with all the noise last year? Well a very silly looking game called Camel Up from Steffen Bogen won the Spiel des Jahres. Not the Kinderspiel but the main Speil award. People were rather upset because Camel Up looks like a simple roll and move kids game. I have to admit even I dismissed it at first.
I first got to try Camel Up at our 2014 Extra-Life event and boy was I wrong in my first impression. Camel Up is a perfect example of making sure you don't judge a game by it's cover (and components).
Camel Up is still a pretty quick, filler style, game, but there's a lot more depth there than you would initially think. It's a betting game for up to 8 players who are betting on the overall winner, overall loser and who will be in the lead each leg of the race. What makes the game great is the way the camels work. If they end up on the same space they stack. If a camel in a stack moves all of the camels on top of it move with it.
