Sky Team: The First Flight Was Bumpy. Then Came Sunday.

Some games grab you on the first turn. Sky Team didn’t. After our first flight, our honest verdict was: the hype is real, but we’re not fully on board yet. A few flights later, we’re on board. This is the story of a slow landing.

What is Sky Team?

Sky Team is a cooperative dice game for exactly two players. One of you is the pilot, the other the co-pilot, and together you try to land a passenger plane at airports around the world. It was designed by Luc Rémond, published by Le Scorpion Masqué and in Germany by Kosmos, and it won the Spiel des Jahres in 2024. A flight takes about 20 minutes.

Our copy is the German edition, subtitled “Bereit zur Landung”, which is roughly “Ready for landing?” When we first played it, it was one of many new games on our table, next to Terraforming Mars, Concept, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle and Galaxy Trucker.

How it plays

You share one cockpit board. Each round, you talk through a plan. Then you both roll your dice in secret, and from that moment on, nobody says a word about the plan. You take turns placing one die at a time on the console.

• Two jobs every round. You have to keep the plane level and set the engines, which moves you along the approach track.
• Split duties. The pilot handles landing gear and brakes, the co-pilot the flaps.
• Other planes in the way. You use the radio to clear traffic from your approach.
• The landing. Over seven rounds the plane loses altitude. By the end, gear and flaps must be down, the plane must be level, and the engines can’t beat the brakes.

Coffee tokens let you nudge a die by one, and reroll tokens soften bad luck. Later airports add obstacles like strong wind, an icy runway or a fuel leak.

The first flight: hype meets reality

Here’s the honest part. After our first round, the game didn’t feel like the instant classic everyone was raving about. We said so at the time, and we also said it was too early to judge after just one round.

That’s the trap with award winners. You open the box expecting fireworks, and you get a quiet dice puzzle where you can’t even tell your partner what you’re planning. The silence is the design. It takes a flight or two before it stops feeling like a rule and starts feeling like the game.

The second chance

On a rainy Sunday afternoon, Sky Team came back out for another session, and after that it was on our table once more. And somewhere between the first doubtful landing and today, it won us over.

What changed for us isn’t something we can pin to one game night. We can tell you this: it’s the kind of game that keeps earning a second look. Twenty minutes, one small board, two people. It fits into an afternoon when the weather has other plans.

Who it’s for

Sky Team is pure two-player co-op. Nobody wins against anybody. That makes it a great pick for any pair who wants to sit on the same side of the table: couples, a parent and an older kid, roommates. Board games for families of all kinds, and this one only ever asks for two seats.

If you’d rather compete, look at 7 Wonders Duel or King of Tokyo: Duel. Sky Team is also on our list of the best board games for couples, as the pick for pairs who’d rather win together.

Sky Team with kids

Our German edition is listed from 10. The publisher’s own indication is 12 and up, and some boxes say 14+. In the community, though, you often hear that younger players can enjoy it too.

We haven’t played Sky Team with our daughters, so we can’t tell you how it lands with a 6- or a 10-year-old. The no-talking rule might be the biggest hurdle for a chatty kid. That’s a guess, not a test.

What we hear in the community

Many players love that both players matter equally. Nobody can “quarterback” the game and tell the other what to do, and passing on a placement can say as much as placing a die. The introductory scenario eases you in, and the color-coded difficulty climbs from green up to black.

The criticism is short. The biggest complaint is that it only plays two. Some find the components solid but not especially innovative.

Our verdict

Sky Team didn’t win us over on the first flight, and we won’t pretend otherwise. It won us over on the next ones. If your table often seats exactly two and you’d like to win together for a change, it’s a smart, quick pick.

If you need a game for three or more, or you can’t keep quiet while your partner puts a 6 where you wanted a 1, look elsewhere.