Stretch Cats, Topple Dominoes, and Rescue Souls from Cerberus

Tokyo Game Market is taking place on April 23-24, 2022, so despite me being far from Big Sight and observing the convention only from afar, I want to channel the spirit of the show and highlight a few Japanese releases, many of which I barely know anything about.

• One such mystery title is ギャラクシーねこのばし from Reiner Knizia, which Japanese publisher Studium Mundi released on March 25, 2022. The game name translates to something like "Galaxy Cat Extension", and the game description I've seen is more imaginative than informative:

Quote:

In ギャラクシーねこのばし, you want to stretch out as many cats as possible, while not being kidnapped by UFOs. On a turn, you reveal a card, then give it to anyone at the table, whether yourself or an opponent.

Hmm, well okay. I mean, I'm all for stretching cats, and it's a Knizia design that may or may not be new. I searched the database for Knizia card games for 2-6 and other combinations to see whether this might be a re-issue, but the guy has a lot of designs and I don't have a lot of info to use for searches.

When I first ran across this title on Twitter, I emailed myself a link to the game titled "Long long cat" because the first thing that came to mind when I saw that cover was "Long Long Man". If you have not watched this epic series of commercials about Chi-chan, Tooru, and the title character, I urge you to do so now:

• Side note: On November 20, 2021, Studium Mundi released 進撃の巨人: 九つの巨人 (Attack on Titan: Nine Giants), a game in which 2-6 players exchange character cards for points. The rest of this description is beyond my Google-assisted abilities, so here's a picture!

• Speaking of Reiner Knizia, Japanese publisher itten is adding two new titles to its "Funbrick" series that debuted in 2021. This series features games in long, skinny boxes, and the designs all appear to have a dexterity element to them. The first five titles in the series are:

— 3 Second Try, by Daichi Chihara and Masayuki Ikegami
— Bonfire Party, by Yoshiaki Tomioka
— Gold Hunting, by Naotaka Shimamoto
— Stick Collection, by Yoshihisa Itsubaki
— Viking See-Saw, by Reiner Knizia

Titles #6 and 7 in the Funbrick line will be Judge Domino from Tsukii Yosuke, which よっけ亭 (Yokke Tei) first released as チキンドミノ (Chicken Domino) in 2021, and Ninja Master from Reiner Knizia yet again. Publisher itten plans to demo these two titles at Game Market in April 2022, then release them in July 2022.

In the former game, you essentially play a game of chicken with dominos, by which I mean on a turn you either add a standing domino to the line of dominoes already standing or you pass. When all but one player has passed, this player attempts to topple this line of dominoes with a single push. If you fail twice, then you are out of the game; if you succeed twice, then you immediately win.

In the latter game, well, the description is brief: Roll nine dice and exchange ninja and sword items, trying to manage both offense and defense.

• Japanese publisher zoemooi debuted in November 2021 with the 4-6 player game The Defeat of Medusa, in which Medusa and the Hero compete to deduce what her weakness is from the clues provided by her statuesque victims, that is, the other players in the game.

For this Game Market, zoemooi is bringing the two-player co-operative game The Awakening of Cerberus, which bears this description:

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In Greek mythology, it is said that a young man named Orpheus used the "tone of the lyre" to put Cerberus to sleep, and in The Awakening of Cerberus, all three heads start the game asleep.

The two players want to collect all the souls of their allies while not losing their own lives in the process. To that end, it is important for you to co-ordinate your strategies since Cerberus may wake if the strategy shifts. An awakened Cerberus head will attack to re-capture the souls it has collected, but you can possibly send it back to sleep. Due to the darkness of the Netherworld, however, free communication between the players is restricted.

• Hoy Games is releasing what's essentially a beta version of Roll & Write Railroads from designer Kentaro Yazawa, noting on the title's Game Market listing, "This game is an experimental design that the author decided to release immediately after he came up with it."

• One Draw will release Murder Mystery: Odd Taxi, a two-hour game for five players set in the world of the anime "Odd Taxi".