Niagara wins the coveted Spiel des Jahres 2005 award. Hooray for Zoch; this is their second win in few years (previous award was 2002 for Villa Paletti).

My first guess for winner was Around the World in 80 Days, since Kosmos hasn’t recieved the award in ten years (last time was 1995 with, of course, Settlers of Catan). Niagara was my second candidate, so I think they did a pretty good job at selecting the winner. It’s a good family game, after all.

Now it only remains to see how the Finnish game of the year awards will turn up; after all, both Niagara and Around the World in 80 Days are competing.