The board gaming world's biggest kids' award has gone to a game a dad built for his four-year-old. Die Insel der Mookies, a quick two-player duel from French designer Florian Sirieix, has won the Kinderspiel des Jahres 2026, and it's exactly the kind of game that earns a permanent spot in the family cupboard.
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Set up your group for freeSirieix (designer of Imaginarium) made it for his son, who wanted something fast to play before school. The boy loved Pokémon, so the two of them dreamed up the Mookies: little creatures from five families, drawn by illustrator Seppyo in a soft, Studio Ghibli-ish style. In play, two children pick cards from a shared display to collect Mookies, winning a family's badge by holding the majority. The catch is the spiders lurking in the display, which you can palm off onto your opponent, and whoever ends up with the most spiders loses a badge. It's for ages 4 and up and plays in about a quarter of an hour.
The jury loved how much game hides behind so few rules, praising a "duel at the game table that children can't get enough of", a challenge "elegantly reduced to the essentials" that grows tactically as children get older. That mix of simplicity and bite is what the Kinderspiel jury hunts for every year.
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Find events near youIt's not the game's first trophy either. Back in February it took the As d'Or for best children's game at the Festival International des Jeux in Cannes, France's headline board gaming award. Published by Kosmos with Le Scorpion Masqué, it's an easy recommendation for anyone with young players at home, and a lovely gateway into two-player gaming.
Sources: Spiel des Jahres | Gus & Co | Le Scorpion Masqué
