Camel Up!

A big congratulations are in order for designer Steffen Bogen as Camel Up takes the 2014 Spiel des Jahres!

Camel Up sees 2-8 players betting on camels during a camel race. The game uses a pretty awesome pyramid dice shaker to release dice one at a time to move camels. Players can bid early to reap in huge rewards, or try to see how the race is playing out and play things a bit safer. Wacky hijinks ensue.

Camel Up is for players 8+, and plays in about 30 minutes.

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At the Toy of the Year Awards opening Toy Fair, Spin Master’s Boom Boom Balloon won Game of the Year. A company representative also told me that HedBanz topped sales charts this past holiday season.

But in terms of new products, Spin Master was showcasing two. One was Shark Mania ($20, available fall), a real-time game about pirates running from an attacking shark. The core of the game is roll-and-move—players roll a die to move their pirate figures down the dock. However meanwhile, a moving shark piece destroys the dock, knocking the pirates in to the water, as it follows them from one end to the other.

The second was Moustache Smash ($16, available fall), again, at the core a typical grabbing game, but with the addition of a cute mustache gimmick. Each player is given a wand, at the end of which is a mustache with a unique combination of shape and color. Also at the end of the wand is a suction cup. Cards picturing mustaches are flipped over while the players hold their mustache wands up to their faces. The goal is to be the first to smash and grab a card with the suction cup when the mustache on the card matches in either color or shape.

Spin Master also plans to release in 2014 The Best of TV & Movies ($25, available fall), which is based on the gameplay of Logo and features 400 question cards of TV and movie trivia, and Win the Gold ($20, available fall), which pits parents against kids in four challenge categories: sights, smarts, action, and luck.

Spin Master’s licenses will yield in 2014 a Paw Patrol Adventure Game ($10), Paw Patrol Lookalikes (a matching game for $6), Disney Fibber ($18, available spring), and Disney Beat the Parents ($18, available spring).

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