Tokyo Game Market 2022 Spring: Report from Table Games in the World

Editor's note: Game Market took place in Tokyo on April 23-24, 2022, and Saigo — who translates game rules between Japanese and English and who tweets about new JP games — has translated reports about this event (a day one report and four slightly more detailed game round-ups) that were written by Takuya Ono, who runs the Table Games in the World blog. Mr. Ono has given permission to reprint the photos from his post. Many thanks to Saigo! —WEM

Tokyo Game Market 2022 Spring (Day 1) took place on April 23 at Tokyo Big Sight. Osaka Game Market 2022 in March had been cancelled, so this was the first Game Market after Tokyo Game Market 2021 Autumn last November.

On such a warm day, with the temperature reaching as high as 27º Celsius as if it was more like early summer than spring, many board game enthusiasts gathered. According to the official announcement, the attendance was 9,500 on the first day and 6,500 on the second day, adding up to 16,000 in total.

Soon after getting off at Tokyo Big Sight Station on the Yurikamome Line, the building with inverted pyramids comes into sight. People who had purchased early entry tickets were gathered in one place and were led in groups to the plaza in front of the venue.

The reported number of COVID-19 infection cases per day continued to exceed 5,000 in Tokyo, but it was fortunate that it had not led to the level of canceling the event like in Osaka in March when the number of infection cases had spiked from a much smaller number.

However, as in the past, strict measures were taken to prevent infection. The measures included registering contacts, taking temperatures, wearing masks, leaving some shutters open, and allowing demo tables only at block booths.

The Game Market venue is not in these inverted pyramids, but on the ground floor below them. The venue, the same as that used for the last Tokyo Game Market, is West Halls 1 and 2 with a combined exhibition area of 17,760 square meters.

Before the opening at 11:00, there was a line of 1,500 people who had purchased early entry tickets. Having learned from the trouble at the last Tokyo Game Market, the entry was made smooth and all of these people managed to enter the venue in only seven minutes.

In the U-shape venue, the dead-end areas at the back tended to be congested. Compared to Tokyo Game Market 2021 Autumn, there were more people with children, but it seemed difficult for strollers to pass amid the congestion.

In a prime spot near the entrance was the Jelly Jelly Games booth. They released communication party games You-Tell and Mitaina, along with the Japanese edition of the drawing game Sherlock & Picasso.

Arclight, which had announced the release of Godzilla, had a large line of people waiting to buy its games, partly due to the pre-release of the Japanese editions of some titles. (The photo shows the display area. The shopping area was behind this area to the left.)

There was a long line of people also at the booth of Keepdry, which released Gun and Gun W SHOUT, a new standard set for the battle card game in which players each equip their gunner character with two guns available to them.

The second-hand board game store Arch Games, for the first time, released three new titles: a Japanese edition of Frank's Zoo, Storabelt, and Animanize. They had a joint booth with KANA charm, who produces custom-made board game accessories.

At the special booth for commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of late Alex Randolph, there was a lecture by Takayuki Sasaki (from Hyakumachimori), who studies the works of Randolph, and a demoing of Randolph's games.

The other special booth, make.ctrl.Japan 2, was a joint booth to demo "analog digital games" that use everyday objects as unusual controllers. From left to right: a game to handle calls to multiple telephone sets, a game to reach the goal while covering yourself with a cardboard box, and a game to defeat insects with blowouts.

At the GP Games booth, students from Yamagata Chuo High School presented their findings in their activity to use CATAN for community building. Having won a prize at the Japan Senior High School Design Championship, their activity is reported to have attracted attentions from the local government and shopping districts.

Susumu Kawasaki, who designed Arclight's new game Godzilla, also released the new tile placement game Connect 37 under his own Kawasaki Factory label. You can score points by connecting the number tiles on which you have placed score tokens.

Toshiki Sato, the author of Happy City (the international edition of Happiest Town), which has been well-received worldwide, released ガニメデ戦記Zero (The War Chronicles of Ganymede Zero), a two-player game in which you build robots by placing transparent part cards on top of each other and sleeving them together.

Saashi, the author of the flip-and-write game Let's Make a Bus Route, enjoys the popularity of its overseas remake Get on Board: New York & London. At the Saashi & Saashi booth, they released the Japanese edition of Get on Board: New York & London and a new card game Before the Guests Arrive.

Toryo Hojo, who has constantly released games themed on topical scandals, released two titles, namely 包装禁止 / Housou Kinshi ("Packaging Not Allowed") and 大戦争のあとしまつ / Daisensou no Atoshimatsu ("Cleaning Up the Mess After a Great War"). His games continue to fascinate us both by their satirical themes and game design with a twist.

ClaGla, who had a joint booth with Shogakukan, presented their new game Pun University, in which players as students try to pass an entrance exam by creating puns to memorize numbers, but the printed copies of the game failed to arrive in time. There were also some other groups whose games failed to arrive in time due to the lockdown in Shanghai.

Takumi Minamibata had won the Kids Creator Award for his game TAKUMI ZOO, which he had created during his summer vacation in the first grade of elementary school.

The brothers seven-year-old Rintaro and five-year-old Ken Shirasaka released the games they had designed under the label "Rinken Games".

At the ボドゲ神社 / Bodoge Jinja ("Board Game Shrine") booth, board game fortune slips and various board game good-luck charms were on sale. May the COVID-19 crisis end soon!

•••

Tokyo Game Market 2022 Spring Report from Table Games in the World: Report on New Games
(Links:
① https://tgiw.info/2022/04/gm2022s-games-1.html
② https://tgiw.info/2022/05/gm2022s-games-2.html
③ https://tgiw.info/2022/05/gm2022s-games-3.html
④ https://tgiw.info/2022/05/gm2022s-games-4.html )

Hundreds of new board game titles are estimated to have been released at Tokyo Game Market 2022 Spring, which took place at Tokyo Big Sight on April 23 and 24. From among them, I would like to report on some titles that caught my attention.

Strategy Games

Godzilla (from Arclight)

This is the first game of the Kaiju on the Earth LEGENDS series. It is a one-against-many game in which Godzilla lands on Tokyo's Shibaura waterfront and lays the city to waste while the humans set up evacuation routes and have the residents escape as much as possible.

The Godzilla player scores points based on the evacuation routes and residents they destroy, while the human players score points based on the evacuated residents and news reports. The Godzilla player announces the route they will take and rolls the dice. By rolling same-number or consecutive dice rolls, they can take actions, such as moving and firing the heat ray. As the Godzilla grows more powerful by acquiring more dice and chances to reroll them, risk management becomes the key factor for the human players.

Game Design: Susumu Kawasaki (Kawasaki Factory) / Illustration: Yuji Kaida and Takeshi Nakamura
2-5 players / 10+ / 50-70 min

Tevsphere (from Shakushi Heiki)

In this planetary exploration game, each card can be used in four different ways. Players each acquire cards by consuming time and oxygen and place them on their player board. There are four spots to place the cards. Depending on where you place them, you may gain materials or use permanent effects. Oxygen that gradually runs out must be replenished by returning to the mother ship. At the end of the game, players compete to score points based on the rarity of the cards placed on their player boards.

Game Design: Rail Amasaki / Illustration: Sania
1-4 players / 8+ / 60-90 min

Connect 37 (from Kawasaki Factory)

In this tile-placement game, you score points by connecting sets of four or more numbers. On your turn, you can place either one of the two hex tiles from your hand on the board. You may also place a score token on the tile placed. At the end of the game, you score points by your score tokens placed on four or more consecutive number tiles in line. Some tiles are removed before the game, so not all number tiles may be connected. Attempts to monopolize the points are hampered by other players, so it is necessary to co-operate with other players to some degree.

Game Design: Susumu Kawasaki / Illustration: Sai Beppu
2-4 players / 8+ / 15 min

解脱RTA / Gedatsu RTA ("Deliverance RTA") (from Megalomaniac Game)

In this game, players in a world of endless suffering and strife practice and accumulate virtue in order to attain deliverance from worldly attachments before anyone else. The players place vitality tokens on the "battle grounds" in snowfields and wildernesses, and when a certain number of player tokens are placed on each battle ground, the players with dominance over the area receive virtues. There are various actions depending on the order of placement, and special actions can be performed with "blessings" to change the battle situation. If you die (run out of vitality tokens) after reaching 16 virtues, you win for having attained deliverance.

Game Design: Party Taro / Illustration: Osamu Yamazaki
3-4 players / 14+ / 25-30 min

Potion Market (from POLAR POND GAMES / analog lunchbox)

The players' actions involve playing mancala by moving six materials in their cauldron player board, extracting essence from the materials, and combining the extracts to acquire potions and familiar spirits. The familiar spirits and potions are lined up in the play area, and how the game proceeds varies depending on whether you choose to acquire familiar spirits with various special effects or potions with bonus actions.

Game Design: Masaki Suga / Illustration: Saori Shibata
2-4 players / 14+ / 20-60 min

Different World Merchant (from Wablues)

The players, in a fantasy world, aim to make the mPotion Marketost profits by trading with other players while changing the values of items, such as the armor, food, magic potions, and gems. Initially, each player knows the value of only one type of item. After performing worker-placement actions that involve taking a peek at the values of other items and swapping the values, players carry out one-to-one trading between them. Finally, the values of all items are disclosed, then the players convert the items in their hands into money. You need to guess the concealed values of items from other players' actions.

Game Design: Fei / Illustration: Namiki
2-4 players / 10+ / 20-45 min

Fairy Factory (from DeDen)

In this game, fairies produce, transport, and sell gems. The combinations of gems that can be sold are determined by demand cards, but only the gems produced in previous turns can be transported and sold. You need to make a sales plans based on this time lag along with your opponents' progress in production.

Game Design & Illustration: DeDen
4 players / 8+ / 45 min

Umbradeco (from KUJIRADAMA)

This is a tile-placement game in which players place hex tiles in the way that no tiles of the same color are adjacent to each other. Meanwhile, they score points from non-adjacent same-color tiles in the same row. You can also push other tiles out or place tiles on top of each other. Points are earned through several different scoring patterns.

Game Design: Emi Kuji / Illustration: Poko
2-4 players / 8+ / 20-30 min

Umizushi (from Umeruma Games)

This is a set-collection game in which players take turns picking the sea slugs lined up in the play area, feed them, and arrange them on the board. The higher the number (points to earn) on the sea slug you pick, the later you are in the turn order to get its food with the risk of being unable to place it. The sea slugs must be placed in specified patterns according to the numbers on them, and you score points from the sea slugs on each orthogonal row filled. The points you score are doubled if you manage to fill each row with same-color sea slugs.

Game Design: Umeruma Games / Illustration: nano
2-4 players / 8+ / 30 min

Monslaught in Halloween (from COLON ARC)

At the start of this "deck-building game with the joy of unpacking a package in every game play", players each draw three cards from the deck, keep one of them as their hand, and play it. Using the power of the cards in your hand, you can acquire the cards in the play area to improve your deck and prepare for the battle with the final boss. The cute illustration by a popular artist is also worth noting.

Game Design: Taiga Takeura (Tareruya) / Illustration: HAL10WEEN
2-4 players / 10+ / 45 min

Trick-Taking Games

アメノキリフダ / Ame no Kirifuda ("Heavenly Trump") (from Mow Mow Games)

Players must follow suit of four seasons. The next season is the trump suit. Each time you win a trick, place on the board a stone in a square of the season you have played. At the end of the game, you score points for the number of stones placed times the number of stones in a row. However, only three or four stones are available, and if you win a trick when a stone is not available, it incurs the wrath of the goddess, and all the stones on the board must be removed. You need to win tricks by the target season while being careful not to win too much. It is possible to push other players' stones out of the squares and even use special cards to score points by filling the squares according to specified patterns, requiring a highly strategic game play.

Game Design: Sencha / Illustration: warmtail
3-4 players / 10+ / 15 min

敗者の権利 / Haisha no Kenri ("Losers' Rights") (from Senpatsu Hyakuchu)

In this game in which you must follow suit and with no trumps, the winner of the trick chooses two of the cards from the trick they won and place them in the play area, while the losers of the trick can bid on them by placing money tokens next to the cards. The cards are eventually arranged in a 5×5 grid, and you score points from the cards won by area majority. The winner of the trick can choose the lead player of the next trick, reverse the strength of the number cards, or move one of their money tokens, so winning the trick is not always a disadvantage.

Game Design: Suzuki / Illustration: Suzu
3-5 players / 10+ / 30 min

不知火 / Shiranui ("Unknown Fire") (from TanTan)

In this game in which you must follow suit, the player who has followed suit with the lowest-value card scores points equal to the difference from the next lowest-value card played in the trick. The color with the highest value in total becomes the suit to follow, so a color other than that of the lead suit may become the suit to follow. In addition to this, players each draw a gem token from the bag at the start and can place the gem token on a previously-played card of the same color to increase the value. This helps increasing both the points you score and the power of the suit, but it is hard to decide when to use it to outsmart other players.

Game Design: Zagurasu / Illustration: Studio Turbine
3-5 players / 10+ / 40 min

いやどす / Iyadosu ("I Refuse") (from Mashikamaru)

In this press-your-luck trick-taking game, players each hold the cards as originally dealt, without rearranging them, and divide these cards in their hand by the insert card. Cards to the left of the insert card are the "normal" cards that must follow suit. On the other hand, cards to the right of the insert card count as "Iyadosu" ("I refuse") cards. Iyadosu cards can be played when a player can follow suit with their "normal" cards but refuses to do so. If a player runs out of "normal" cards to play, they are eliminated from the round. You can score points if you survive until the end of the round. The more "normal" cards you have, the less likely you are to be eliminated, but then you have fewer "Iyadosu" cards to spare. If you run out of "Iyadosu" cards, your score drops and you may end up with zero points.

Game Design: Mashikamaru / Illustration: Studio Turbine, Oimo3, Rabbin
3-5 players / 12+ / 30 min

Two Seesaws (from ORUCAgames)

In this trick-taking game in which you must follow suit, depending on the winning suit in the previous trick, the power of the values on the cards switches between ascending and descending order and the type of trick switches between "SEE trick" (in portrait orientation) and "SAW trick" (in landscape orientation). You earn 2 points for each pair of "SEE" and "SAW" tricks and lose 1 point for each of either trick not in a pair.

Game Design by: Sotogamo Nakiku / Illustration: Moyy
1-5 players / 14+ / 30 min

魔女の一撃宅配便 / Majo no Ichigeki Takkyuubin ("Witch's Shot Delivery Service") (from Nekoyanagi Daikinnboshi)

In this trick-taking game with bidding, players each check the cards in their hand and announce the number of packages they can carry as their "quota". The package of your acquired tricks counts as "the package you have delivered", but if you deliver more than you can at once, you get a strained lower back, which is called "Hexenschuss" (witch's shot) in German.

Game Design: Nama Nekoyanagi / Illustration: Tasuke
3-4 players / 7+ / 20-40 min

Dice Games

Monster Colosseum (from Laugh Games)

In this survival dice action game, players roll their monster dice into the colosseum surrounded by walls and compete with their dice rolls in total. You can also roll your dice to hit your opponents' dice in order to change their dice rolls or drop them into the holes in the colosseum, making it a tough survival for them.

Game Design: Mukai / Illustration: Japan Anime & Manga College
3-4 players / 6+ / 30-40 min

Nozoku Dice (from Kanazawa Kodatsuno Games)

Players pick dice rolls from the play area and play action cards to change the dice rolls in order to form the most same-number dice rolls of higher numbers. The cards indicate the sides of the dice placed on them. Use them in good combinations to increase and match dice rolls.

Game Design: Tora Kuji / Illustration: Sai Beppu
1-4 players / 12+ / 20-30 min

Ninja Master (from itten)

The prototype of Ninja Master (Fun Brick Series 07), which will be released in mid-2022, was being demoed. It is a pattern recognition and reaction game to roll dice, count the number of ninja on the dice rolls, and race to grab the corresponding ninja or sword.

Game Design: Reiner Knizia

Two-Player Games

Corsaire (from Fudacoma Games)

This is a two-player game from Fudacoma Games, who have produced a series of well-received pen-and-paper games. In the first half of the game, players place cards in an inverted-pyramid form to create the resource conversion route. In the second half, they collect the cards in turn to form their hands and play them to acquire areas in the style of Battle Line. The cards need to be placed with consideration to both the conversion route in the first half and the order in which they are collected in the second half of the game.

Game Design: Yusuke Sawaguchi, Illustration: Makoto Takami
2 players / 12+ / 30 min

Sarauabaku (from Kengo Otsuka)

This is a social deduction game between a detective and thief over treasure. The detective player knows which of the three treasure chests contains the treasure, while the thief player knows which of the six suspects is the thief. The players take turns to place a character next to a card and try to deduce whereabouts of the treasure and thief from where the characters are placed. The production team includes the character designer and scenario writer of the video game Ace Attorney series, and the game is supplied with a novel.

Game Design: Kengo Otsuka / Graphic Design: Tsutomu Dejima / Character Design: Tatsuro Iwamoto / Novel Writing: Takeshi Yamazaki
2 players / 8+ / 10-30 min

Rhombus (from Game NOWA)

In this abstract game, players place tiles each with two triangles on them and score points for connecting an even number of same-color triangles. The tiles to place also include the triangles of your opponent's color, so players each try to form groups of an even number of triangles of their color while trying to form groups of an odd number of their opponent's color. The advanced rules involve patterns in addition to color. The game on the left in the photo is Shinigami Preschool ("Reaper Preschool"), a new trick-taking game from the same author, in which players can score points by collecting an even number of same-color cards.

Game Design and Artwork: Kenichi Kabuki
2 players / 8+ / 20 min

Ham's Sandwich Shop (from Graphic335)

Players move the hamster chef in the style of Patchwork around the cards positioned in a loop to place toppings on their bread, and they announce when they think the sandwich is finished according to the recipe. Meanwhile, the recipe changes according to the toppings in front of the hamster token as it moves around. Each time the hamster chef jumps over a seed, you can insert your hamster tile from your hand to add secret toppings. However, some hamsters may snack on the toppings underneath them.

Game Design: Kengo Otsuka / Illustration: Graphic335
2-3 players / 8+ / 30 min

Word Games

Poemo (B-Cafe)
After the initial phrase card is determined, players play from their hands a poetic and emotional ("po-emo") phrase card that follows it, then they vote for the best one. A poem is completed by linking four cards of such phrases. The first player to gain the specified score wins. The game contains 200 "po-emo" phrases.

Game Design: Shogo Kuroda / Illustration: Chupami
3-8 players / 12+ / 5-10 min

4コマンガ / Yonkomanga ("Four-Panel Comic") (from Shogakukan)

Players take turns to play a panel tile for one of multiple four-panel comic strips in production. After all the comic strips are complete, the reader player chooses which is "most popular" and which is the least popular one "to be cancelled". You score points for your panels in the most popular strip and lose points for your panels in the strip to be cancelled. The points to score or lose are higher for later panels.

Game Design and Graphic Design: Daipo (ClaGla) / Illustration: Kokonasu☆Rumba
3-6 players / 8+ / 20 min

がんばれ！AIueo / Ganbare! AIueo (from MILLION PERCENT)

Each letter from the "topic word" is assigned in turn to a player, who composes a sentence starting with that letter. In the style of Telestrations, each player can read only the sentence written by the player before them. Without determining the winner, the game is designed to simply enjoy the presentation at the end.

Game Design: mizumizu / Illustration: Piu
3-6 players / 10+ / 15-30 min

エビフライエフェクト / Ebi Fry Effect (from Mugen Infinity ∞)

Players take turns being the storyteller, who plays a story card face down from their hand and tells a made-up story that connects the face-up card in the play area and the card they have just played. Other players try to guess from the story whether the card played includes the word "Ebi Fry" (Japanese fried shrimp) and race to take the supplied Ebi Fry replica in the center of the table if they think that Ebi Fry is included. The Story Teller can score points if everyone fails to take the Ebi Fry for a card containing "Ebi Fry" or if a player takes the Ebi Fry for a card not containing "Ebi Fry".

Game Design: Mugen Infinity ∞ / Illustration: Yui Metal
2-8 players / 10+ / 20 min

ムジュンゴ / Mujungo (Azb.Studio)

Cards are revealed one by one from the deck, and if an animal on another player's card is revealed, race to shout out the player's name before they do. Factors such as calling other players by their chosen animal names and associating multiple animals with each card by inserting it into a transparent card sleeve with different animal names make the games a quirky brain burner.

Game Design and Illustration: Azb.Studio
2-6 players / 6+ / 15 min

Other New Games

Planepita (from SzpiLAB)

Players flick their discs in three concentric circles and compete for majority in each area. Each disc contains a magnet. If flipped to the other side, it sticks to the board and becomes harder to be moved away. The areas closer to the center can earn you a higher score, but the competition is also higher in these areas.

Game Design: Eisuke Fujinawa and Kazunori Hori / Artwork: Mitsuki Toyama
2-4 players / 6+ / 20-30 min.

Before the Guests Arrive (from Saashi & Saashi)

Players take turns taking an orthogonal row of cards from the play area and scoring points per set of family cards and their corresponding stuff cards. Any number of same-type cards can be collected to score points at once, but collecting too many cards incurs the risk of losing many points when the game-ending card is drawn from the deck.

Game Design: Saashi / Illustration: Takako Takarai
2-4 players / 7+ / 15 min

Dungeon in Memory (from Okabodo Seisakubu)

Tiles for connecting the dungeon path are played, but instead of placing them next to each other, they are piled on top of each other, with each player picturing the possible connected dungeon path in their head. If a player guesses that the tiles can no longer be placed to extend the path, they announce "Lost" at that point. To check whether the guess is correct, the tiles in the dungeon are connected in order at the end. The game play requires spatial perception rather than memory.

Game Design: locogame / Artwork: TOPECONHEROES Daryama
1-5 players / 10+ / 10-30 min

Annasi! (from Puninokai)

This is a co-operative game in which players try to guess the numbers "1" to "6" assigned to each of them, using specified actions, mimicry, and comments as clues. The clues, which change from game to game, include ones such as everyone concurrently clapping their hands the number of times matching their numbers, everyone concurrently reciting the chant "Namu Amida Butsu" likewise, and talking about what they did during the month or time of their numbers.

Game Design: Mahito Mukai / Illustration: Ryoya Furukawa
1-6 players / 6+ / 15 min

Judge Domino (from itten)

This is a remake of Chicken Domino, which was released from Yokke Tei at Tokyo Game Market 2021 Autumn. Players take turns adding a domino to the line or moving a domino in the line. If you think that it is not possible to knock over all the dominoes in the line, challenge the player who has placed the last domino. The player pushes the domino at the end of the line to see whether all the dominoes can be knocked over. This is scheduled to be released in mid-2022.

Game Design: Tsukii Yosuke

Magicalligraphy Luxury Edition (from Koguma Koubou)

This is a social deduction game in which players together try to draw the specified symbol using the feather quill connected with thin wires to the ring on each player's finger and attempt to guess which, if any, of the players were attempting to draw a different symbol than the others. Originally released at Tokyo Game Market 2021 Spring, this luxury edition was produced with the handcraft by Northgame. Only ten copies were available via preorder lottery for 12,000 yen each.

Game Design: Masakazu Takizawa / Artwork: Northgame
2-4 players / 6+ / 15-30 min

めぐるめぐみ / Meguru Megumi ("Nature's Blessings Circulate") (from Carrying Water Project)

In this co-operative game, players play cards to circulate water. They discuss with each other in order to prevent sewage from overflowing or running out of water, and treat the sewage so that it can be returned to nature and used again.

Game Design: Carrying Water Project+66
2-4 players / 8+ / 30 min

王宮の飾り絵師 / Oukyuu no Kazarieshi ("Painter in the Royal Palace") (from Saikoro Juku)

Players blind bid on the color and number of areas they want to paint. Biddings on the same color as those bid on by players who bid on fewer areas are cancelled. Otherwise, you can paint on your player sheet the color you have successfully bid on. Players compete for points by their painted areas and by meeting the requirements specified on the "Royalty's Request Card" which changes for each game.

Game Design: Kosuke Zaitsu / Illustration: Misuzu
3-6 players / 8+ / 15-20 min

The opening time had been moved one hour later from the last Tokyo Game Market. As a result, visitors have only five hours a day for regular entry and six hours even for early entry. On the other hand, there are 608 exhibitor booths. If you wish to visit and check all of them, you can spend only 30-40 seconds per booth by rough estimate. Once again, I visited all the booths, but there must be many items that I missed. On the TGIW website, we currently conduct a questionnaire survey on the games released at Tokyo Game Market. We would like to refer to the results of the survey and other information to catch up with the titles we have missed.

Mr. Ono ricochets around Game Market