Shougi

Shogi was the third Game Boy release to revolve around an endemic Japanese pastime, and the third Game Boy release never to see a release in the West. Japanese pastimes like shogi, however, stood as the exception. Like Yakuman and Pachinko Time before it, Pony Canyon’s Shogi featured a tabletop game that’s never found its way beyond Asia… though in this case, it’s not because shogi is particularly unique to Japan but rather because the West already has its own variant: Chess. The two classic games are essentially the same thing, minus some differences in rules and aesthetics. But the two are sufficiently redundant that Americans have no need for shogi… yet sufficiently different that publishers can’t just reskin a shogi game and pass it off as chess, either. Another similarity between Shogi, Yakuman, and Pachinko Time: This Game Boy release was a part of something akin to a tradition for its publisher, Pony Canyon. Just as Nintendo had released a few mahjong games before Yakuman and Coconuts Japan was all about dressing up virtual pachinko with the trappings of an adventure game, Pony Canyon specialized in shogi titles.