Openers:
Mark: Space Empires 4X
Jonathan: 2005 Flashback & Quiz

Closers:
Jonathan: My top games of 2005
Mark: Hosting my own (small) event instead of traveling to a con?

Mark Johnson

@MarkEJohnson

Jonathan Takagi

@jtakagi

The Wayback Machine is back. One more time, a friend joins me to go back in time to an earlier Spiel des Jahres, looking at the winner but also the other nominees and recommended games. In addition, my guest helps me think about the earlier time itself, and how the games, the hobby, and the community may have changed over the years. This time it's my longtime friend & listener from San Diego, Jonathan Takagi. In fact, he's from a bit north, in Escondido, and Jonathan is another one of the people behind my favorite regional con, EsCon. I'll be going back there in a month!

Jonathan decided to pick 2005 because it's twenty years ago...which also happens to be when I started the podcast. Niagara was the game that won the SdJ (one of my earliest disappointments with the jury's selection!), and I replayed it just recently to re-examine my opinion about the game. In fact, it can be played online at BGA, which seems odd for a game that relies on its physicality and "toy factor" as much as it does. Still, the actual strategy in the game remains intact in the format, since the unpredictability of the fork in the river may not be so unpredictable after all. What do you think of Niagara?

  

We don't just talk about the winner, though. Back in those days, the SdJ jury announced four other "nominated" games that could've won the award, and several more "recommended" games. For me, I think the game I'd want as the winner resides in the nominated list, while Jonathan singles out some standouts from the recommended list.

Other titles nominated for the SdJ: Verflixxt! (That's Life), Around the World in 80 Days, Jambo, and Himalaya (Lords of Xidit)

   

Other titles recommended by the SdJ jury: Boomtown, Tanz der Hornochsen (Dance of Ibexes), The Gardens of the Alhambra, Diamant (Incan Gold), Geschenkt! (No Thanks), Piranha Pedro, Typo, and Wie ich die Welt sehe…

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