🐿️ 2026 is off to a strong start! 5 new games announced to discover this year: kamikaze squirrels, reinvented poker and global stalking.
2026: Poker changes skin (and the squirrels attack). 5 games to watch urgently
Table of Contents
- 2026: Poker changes skin (and the squirrels attack). 5 games to watch urgently
- The Encyclopedia of Monsters: When Memory gets its doctorate
- 12 Rivers: The Gravity Show
- All In – Predictions: Poker, but better (yes, yes)
- Red Notice: Catch me if you can (spoiler: you’ll struggle)
- Scurry Up! : The squirrel traffic jam
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The essentials in 3 points:
- 5 new games announced for 2026, with a tactile trend: 2026 focuses on the “visible” with rolling beads and simultaneous action.
- Scorpion Masqué reinvents the memory game with an evolving and ambitious narrative mechanic.
- Bluffing and deduction are back in force with an asymmetrical duel and clever neo-poker.
Put away your good savings resolutions, 2026 has just entered the room with a ram.
Do you smell this smell? No, it’s not that of the cold coffee lying around on your desk (we see you), but that of the brand new cardboard and the playful promises of this year 2026 which is off to a flying start.
As for three weeks already, we’re giving you a little recap of the releases announced for the coming weeks/months, games for 2026. We’ve taken out our detective magnifying glass, sifted through the obscure press releases in German and intercepted the publishers’ smoke signals to serve you on a platter the 5 titles that will hit our tables in the months to come. Spoiler: you will have to make space on the shelves (and negotiate with your banker).
The Encyclopedia of Monsters: When Memory gets its doctorate
At Masked Scorpion | Release: Spring 2026
Forget everything you know about the Memory of your childhood where you stupidly turned over two tiles and prayed that it would work. Here, the Masked Scorpion offers us a reinvention of the genre from the “Dream Team” Bauza, Lebrat and Rivière. Just that.
The pitch? It’s a journey. A real one. Five volumes, five continents, and a cooperative mission from 6 years old : document legendary creatures without scaring them. The mechanics that kill: “Benevolent cruelty”. You play a Monster card, you try to find its token. Are you failing? A candle goes out and poufeveryone goes back to hide. The board resets. It’s brilliant because it forces you to rebuild a memory collective out loud, rather than leaving everyone to ruminate in their own corner.
Why we are waiting for it: For the “playful documentary” approach. Each monster is presented by locals, with a cultural respect that feels good. Release planned for June, and we are already betting that it will be a hit in schools (and among parents).
The rules are available here:
12 Rivers: The Gravity Show
At Pegasus Spiele | Release: September 2026
Sometimes you just want to see things rolling. Pegasus games et Good Games understood it well with 12 Rivers. This is not entirely new (the real ones know that he dragged his gaiters into 2022), but 2026 marks his massive and “mainstream” arrival here.
Le concept : A sloping plateau, pearls flowing down rivers, and you, little tribal leaders, trying to intercept these resources. It’s visual, it’s tactile, it’s “countertop physics” as we like it.
Why it’s smart: Beneath its appearance as a wooden toy for an Instagrammer, it is a real tense management game. The higher you go on the river to have priority, the more expensive it is. It’s the eternal dilemma of “I take a little but sure” versus “I go for the jackpot”.
All In – Predictions: Poker, but better (yes, yes)
Chez Next Move | Sortie : Mars 2026
Poker is cool, but waiting for Jean-Michel to fold is a long time. And losing real money is ugly. All In – Predictions takes the vocabulary of poker (hand, river, all-in) but transforms it into a modern and nervous board game.
Here, having the best hand is not enough. The real jackpot is predict who will win. You will manipulate the river, use powers, and above all bluff not on your cards, but on your intentions.
Why are we monitoring? Because it transforms the famous “You’re bluffing Martoni!” » in real game mechanics. It’s going to be chatted around the table, and we love it. And also, because the game is created by the talented Australian author Phil Walker-Harding.
👉 Already in preco at Philibert
Red Notice: Catch me if you can (spoiler: you’ll struggle)
At Catch Up Games | Release: March 2026 (FIJ Cannes)
Chez Catch Up Gameswe like tough duels. Red Notice promises to be the thriller of the year for two players.
The atmosphere: On one side, Angela, a genius forger who must sell a million counterfeit dollars. On the other, Jessah, a tenacious federal agent. The mechanics: Asymmetric programming. Four Action cards are drawn at random (the common frame), and everyone places their tokens to decide When et comment activate them. It’s a game of cat and mouse where you spend your time saying to yourself “I know that you know that I know”. The release is imminent (March 2026), so prepare your best poker faces.
👉 Already in preco at Philibert
Scurry Up! : The squirrel traffic jam
At Asmodee / UP Games | Release: End of February 2026
Sometimes you don’t want to think for 30 years. We just want to climb trees. Scurry Up! is a simultaneous placement game. Everyone puts their squirrels down at the same time to grab nuts. The problem? If too many people are aiming for the same branch… Patatraseveryone falls and no one gains anything. It’s the mechanics of the traffic jam: “I know he knows I want the nut, so I’m going to go to the bay… but what if he thought the same? »
Why are we monitoring? For joyful chaos. This is typically the “filler” that could end up lasting the whole evening because we want revenge. Created by David Gordon and TAM, the same duo of shady authors behind Monkey Palace, who are also the publishers of the UP Games studio, that’s a good thing.
In 2026, beware of squirrels and rivers of pearls: they are the ones who will hijack your evenings.
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