Temple Twist — a stunning temple I wanted to love more (SPIEL Essen 2026)

Description provided by Luzapalooza on YouTube:

Temple Twist is a cooperative dexterity puzzle from Kosmos, designed by Bernhard Weber for 1–4 players: you turn and rebuild walls inside a free-standing 3D temple, trying to guide a rolling die into specific rooms and out through a matching exit. This video is part of our Essen Countdown on Luzapalooza: every day until SPIEL Essen 2026, we spotlight one game worth putting on your radar — from the big anticipated releases to the tiny games you could easily miss in the crowd. Temple Twist on BGG: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/462360/temple-twist The temple itself is genuinely impressive: it assembles once and folds flat back into the box, the fixed walls clip in nicely, and it’s fun to hold and spin in your hands. The puzzle underneath it, though, didn’t hold up for me. I played through half of the numbered expeditions (solo, with a house rule letting me hold more than the official six-card hand limit) and was never once in real trouble. The game’s “limited communication” rule also doesn’t do what it says: every card in the deck either moves the temple or changes a wall, so even without naming your cards out loud, there’s nothing left to hide — one player can effectively run the whole table. A couple of smaller gripes: the removable walls don’t clip in like the fixed ones, so a loose wall sliding out and ending your run on the spot feels cheap rather than earned, and some of the room colors are genuinely hard to tell apart at a glance. On the lighter side: it’s an ancient temple expedition, and somehow all the “treasure” in your backpack is individually plastic-wrapped candy — except the blue backpack, which gets none. I don’t understand that design choice, but it made me laugh. My actual verdict: this is a great pick for families with kids around 8–10 — the table presence alone will win them over, and the difficulty is exactly where it should be for that age. If you’re an adult group looking for a real puzzle, this isn’t it. The Meet & Play will take place at Saal Essen on Saturday, October 24th. We'll be there starting at 3 PM — here's a link to the event with a photo showing exactly where to find the room: https://meet-and-play.de/en/about/ If this is your third video on the channel, maybe it's time to subscribe. :-) Luzapalooza on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/Luzapalooza This Game Is Broken — the board game comedy podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/1GXyynkXltlLY3hGNoYtnB Thanks for watching, and check out the rest of our Essen Countdown for more games! BOARDGAMES · GOOD TIMES · HUGS #Luzapalooza #SpielEssen2026 #SpielEssen #BoardGames #BoardGameGeek #TabletopGames #TempleTwist #Kosmos #CooperativeGame #BoardGame #TabletopGaming #EssenSpiel