Morty Sorty Magic Shop Deep Dive
What the Community Thinks About Morty Sorty Magic Shop
Morty Sorty Magic Shop, a light family sorting game from Schmidt Spiele, reached the 2026 Spiel des Jahres shortlist, and the community is sharply divided over whether it deserved the spot. BoardGameGeek's Kristoff is happy it was nominated and calls it great for families, arguing that critics who call it basic probably have not played it with people who rarely play games. The Dice Tower is far cooler: Tom Vasel and Mike Delisio both found it safe and dull, and Mike Delisio gave it a four in his weekly roundup. Our Family Plays Games sits in between, describing a light, puzzly gateway game that is fun but perhaps not one to reach for often. Board Stupid, discussing the shortlist without having played it, calls it a perfectly fine puzzle that feels like a very German pick.
Core Mechanics That Define Morty Sorty Magic Shop
Tile Placement and Sorting
Each round, jars come out of a bag and players take turns picking one to place on a personal three-shelf board. Every jar has a value, an ingredient and a lid color, and all three matter. Values in every row must increase from left to right, and the lid color decides where a jar can go: as Ilia and Tyler explain, gold jars can go anywhere, silver jars only on the middle and bottom rows, and black jars only on the bottom row. Kristoff notes that the bottles are simply thrown from the bag, so what comes up is random, and the last bottle left each round goes out of the game. That mix of a random draw and strict placement rules is the whole puzzle, and Our Family Plays Games calls it very puzzling in a good way.
Set Collection and Wild Jar Unlocks
The four ingredients are mushrooms, lightning in a bottle, mandrakes and eyes. When a player fills a column with three different ingredients, they immediately take one of the star bottles from an open display. These are wilds that fit anywhere, and Kristoff describes how placing one that completes another column lets a player pick again and again. The cats add a small economy. As The Dice Tower explains, each bottle has two colored sides and the side that drops out must be used, but a player can spend a cat to flip it, or spend one to put the same number next to another on a shelf. Players can also pass to take a cat instead of a jar, being first to complete a side quest earns one, and cats are worth two points at the end.
The Morty Sorty Magic Shop Experience
Satisfying Ordering and Organization
For its fans, the pleasure is in the arranging. Kristoff sums up the appeal as a throwing element and a very easy task that is full of thinking, but not too much. Our Family Plays Games highlights the puzzle of getting jars into the right places and turning them over, and singles out the two-sided, multi-use jars as the part that felt unique. Kristoff also reports that the players at the table kept coming back to try different missions, which suggests the game holds up across repeat plays for a casual audience.
Escalating Decision Pressure
The same structure that makes the game approachable drains its tension for experienced players. The Dice Tower describes a game with guardrails up, where the scoring spots on the board mostly point toward placements that would be made anyway. The hosts agree it fits the weight the Spiel des Jahres jury is looking for, but argue that a game of this weight can still have more compelling and more interesting decisions. One of the hosts sums up the feeling bluntly: they did not dislike it, but were bored playing it.
What Makes Morty Sorty Magic Shop Stand Out
Charming Artwork and Component Design
BoardGameGeek's players are the most enthusiastic about the look. Kristoff calls the artwork fantastic, and the group points out that each player board hides small Easter eggs, such as a snail seemingly making a heart and a choir of mice. The cats are singled out as cute, and the board can be flipped for a more advanced setup. Not everyone agrees: The Dice Tower finds the production pale and the ingredients in jars, mandrakes and mushrooms, overly familiar.
Scalable Complexity for Different Audiences
The game ships with a basic and an advanced scoring mode. In the basic game there is a single scoring scheme; in the advanced game, each ingredient scores differently. Kristoff describes a table that, after several plays, wanted to try the advanced rules, and warns that it becomes very thinky at that point, so the game can grow with its players. The Dice Tower tried both and found the base game very boring and the advanced game merely okay, which frames the advanced mode as a necessary upgrade rather than a bonus for anyone beyond the family audience.
Potential Drawbacks
Mechanical Simplicity and Limited Strategic Depth
The Dice Tower's review is the strongest critique. One of the hosts explains the guardrails problem directly: "There are nine spots. They're like Fill the spot with these numbers and you get points. But, that's also where you're going to put those numbers anyway. So, you should do it." Mike Delisio's roundup repeats the verdict, calling it boring, completely safe and by the numbers, with almost no personality. Ilia and Tyler, predicting the Spiel des Jahres, admits it had more fun with Jinxo and that Morty Sorty fell a little short without being able to say exactly why.
Derivative Mechanics and Dated Aesthetic
Several reviewers feel the game is behind the times. The Dice Tower says it looks like a game from the '90s or early 2000s, that it plays old as well, and that it feels like something released 15 years ago; Mike Delisio puts it at 12 to 15 years. Board Stupid's hosts see it as a typically German jury pick and struggle to see why it made the shortlist. Players who enjoy an unpretentious family puzzle may not mind, but those hoping for something fresh are likely to be disappointed.
If You Enjoy Morty Sorty Magic Shop
Kristoff notes that Morty Sorty has a tiny bit of the Welcome To feel of placing numbers in order, although drawn and thrown from a bag rather than flipped from cards. Our Family Plays Games heard the same comparison but could not see the connection, so fans of Welcome To should expect only a loose family resemblance. The Dice Tower says that at first glance it almost looked like Quacks of Quedlinburg, with potions drawn from a bag, so families drawn to the potion theme and bag draws may want to look at Quacks as well.
What Reviewers Are Saying
"I think what they've done is they've taken the safe route every possible way they can. They went right down the middle, and they shaved off every possible rough edge. And in so doing, they've shaved off any personality this game might have had."
— The Dice Tower
"It's a basic game. Yes, it is. But it does for non-gamers or people who rarely g play games exactly what it should be because exactly this throwing thing and then the very easy task that you have that is full of thinky thinky but not too much."
— Kristoff, BoardGameGeek
"Well, I had more fun playing Jinxo than I did Morty sorty. Let's just say that. I think that this is a party game that I thoroughly enjoyed. I think Morty sorty just fell a little short for me."
— Ilia and Tyler