BoardGameRatings.com Announces 2007 Annual Game Award Winners

Cedar Hills, Utah, November 15, 2007 – Just in time for the holidays, BoardGameRatings.com, a site dedicated to reviewing board games, announced its picks for the best board games of 2007. The awards go to the strategy, family and two-player board games that received the highest rating during the year from the site's editorial staff. This year's winners include Thief of Baghdad, a strategy game themed on looting the abandoned palaces in Iraq's capital; Qwirkle, a game for the whole family in which players match shapes and colors to build a Scrabble-like puzzle; and Mr. Jack, a two-player strategy game in which one player is the infamous Jack the Ripper and the other player is a group of detectives trying to capture him.

The 2007 winners distinguished themselves from the other nominees as superior games during the review process. Kendall Hulet, founder of BoardGameRatings.com explained, "Our ratings are based on the quality of the game's artwork and components, the clarity of its instructions, how well the game fits its intended audience, the strength of its theme, and most importantly, how fun the game is to play!"

Walking away with this year's top honor as the Best Strategy Game of 2007 is Thief of Baghdad, designed by Thorsten Gimmler and published by Rio Grande Games. "We are excited that Thief of Baghdad stole the show with this award," said Jay Tummelson, founder of Rio Grande Games. Thief of Baghdad has the distinction of being interesting, flexible, and wonderfully simple, a standout among European-style strategy games, according to the editorial staff at BoardGameRatings.com. It works well with two, three, or four players, and people of all ages (eight and up) will have fun.

Qwirkle, published by Mindware, earned the honor of being the Best Family Game of 2007 by providing an entertaining and mind-stretching experience that is fun for adults, but easy to learn for children ages 6 and up. "It just goes to show that there are still activities that whole families can enjoy together," Hulet said. "…As long as parents don't mind the possibility that their kids may show them up a bit," he added.

Mr. Jack, designed by award-winning Bruno Cathala and Ludovic Maublanc, and published by Hurrican, holds the honor of being the Best 2-Player Game of 2007 because of its fun theme and interesting game play. "Mr. Jack is a game where the two players play different roles and have different goals; yet Mr. Jack successfully maintains its balance. The result is that there is twice as much strategy to learn, and twice as much fun to be had in playing the two different roles," the editorial staff of BoardGameRatings.com wrote in the site's detailed review of Mr. Jack. "It's great that Mr. Jack has been honored as one of the best board games of the year," commented Yves Menu, a representative of Hurrican. "This bolsters our commitment to producing more quality board games in the future."

"Picking the winners was a difficult process, especially with so many great games to choose from. That's why we decided to pick the best of the finalists in each category and give them the distinction of being BoardGameRatings.com Recommended Games," Hulet explained. The Recommended Strategy Game of 2007 is Colosseum, designed by Wolfgang Kramer and Markus Lübke, and published by Days of Wonder. In Colosseum, players compete to produce the most fantastic spectacles in their arenas and draw the largest crowds. Mark Kaufmann, Vice President at Days of Wonder explained, "This award shows that Colosseum follows in the tradition of high quality and fun that has been established by other Days of Wonder games, such as Ticket to Ride."

The Recommended Family Game award went to Zooloretto, the winner of the prestigious Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) Award for 2007. Zooloretto was designed by Michael Schacht and is published by Rio Grande, and allows players to build zoos containing cute animals and yummy concessions to draw crowds and score points.

The Recommended 2-Player Game for 2007 is Medici vs. Strozzi, a game of bidding and trading at sea ports, designed by well-known game designer Reiner Knizia and also published by Rio Grande. "It's an honor to win awards this year in the strategy, family, and two-player categories," said Jay Tummelson of Rio Grande Games. "We are pleased that our games are recognized for their great entertainment value."

This year's award winners have been well received by the playing public-for example, Zooloretto has been hard to find due to sell-out demand. Army Captain Michael Curtis, an Iraq War veteran from the 4th Infantry Division, was recently introduced to Thief of Baghdad, the strategy award winner. "Wow. That was a lot more fun than the real Baghdad," Captain Curtis quipped after playing. "And it smelled a lot better than the real Baghdad, too!"

BoardGameRatings.com was established in 2004 as a site dedicated to reviewing and promoting great board games for the whole family. It is based out of Cedar Hills, Utah.