by W. Eric Martin

▪️ As German publishers prep for Spielwarenmesse — the annual toy fair in Nürnberg, Germany at the end of January — they’re starting to promote what’s coming, with AMIGO Spiel teasing the four titles it plans to release in early 2026. These games are:

• A 30th anniversary edition of Ken Fisher‘s trick-taking game Wizard. (Fisher self-published Wizard in 1984, but AMIGO’s German edition didn’t appear until 1996.)

In a Nov. 12, 2025 press release, AMIGO noted that this edition will include two new special cards: the Vampire, which copies the trump card, and the Witch, which lets you exchange one card in the trick. Special cards from other editions — Dragon, Fairy, Werewolf, Juggler, Bomb, Cloud, and Shapeshifter — will also be included. What’s more, “new scoring chips provide a quick overview of the game’s progress and simplify the final scoring”.

Franz Vohwinkel will be handling the illustration, as he has done for previous AMIGO editions.

• Matter Matters is a 2-4 player card game from Tsutomu Dejima that plays in 20 minutes. (I don’t know whether this will be a German edition of milkuro, a trick-taking game in which you try to take the same number of tricks in two suits, but that would be my guess.)

• Koffer, Katze & Sombrero, a 2-4 player card game from Christian Kudahl that plays in 20 minutes.

• Greedy Goose, a card game for 2-6 players from George Feledichuk, Duvey Rudow, and Leo Taylor that plays in 20 minutes.