by Saigo

Editor’s note: Game Market took place in Chiba Prefecture in the greater Tokyo area on November 22-23, 2025, and Saigo — who translates game rules between Japanese and English and who tweets about new JP games — has translated two reports about this event 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

Report 1: The Venue

Game Market 2025 Autumn took place at Makuhari Messe in Chiba on November 22 and 23. In warm autumn days with the minimum temperature staying above 10°C, the venue was filled with enthusiastic board gamers. According to the official announcement, attendance reached a record high of 30,000, with 17,000 people attending on the first day and 13,000 on the second.

This marked the third time Game Market was held at Makuhari Messe, following last autumn and this spring. I’ve become used to the interaction between the Keiyo and Musashino lines, and the ten-minute walk from the nearest Kaihin-Makuhari Station no longer bothers me (although it is tough on the way home after buying many board games). Since hotels near the venue are scarce and expensive, I heard that people book lodging in Chiba or Funabashi instead.

The entrance to Makuhari Messe entrance. Heading in, along with people going to other events…

On Day 1, the show opened at 11:00 for the 2,700 people with early entry tickets and at 12:00 for other visitors. Even with early entry tickets, people still queued for hours from dawn to secure pole position. The weather was nice and warm for this autumn event. Applause erupted when the opening announcement was made and people entered the venue, showing their wristbands.

Early entry queue on Day 1

Makuhari Messe layout

Halls 3, 4, 5, and 6 were used for this Game Market. However, Halls 3 and 4 were divided by a passageway (see diagram above), resulting in a 3:1 booth allocation ratio. This created a significant difference in crowd density between the divided halls. For comparison, Game Market 2025 Spring used Halls 5 through 8 with a 1:1 booth allocation ratio.

On Saturday, a long line formed at the Engames booth in Hall 6 for Bomb Busters. The line lasted until the afternoon. On Sunday, another long line formed in Hall 4 of people seeking to purchase famous TRPG scenario books. Meanwhile, Hall 3 was fairly deserted.

View of crowded Halls 4 through 6 from the entrance of Hall 4

Hall 3 was fairly deserted, but visitors could be seen playing leisurely in the children’s play

area and the Big Game Park, where giant-sized board games were available

Engames was likely the busiest booth at this Game Market. They prepared many copies of the reprinted Bomb Busters with the Spiel des Jahres winner logo. Ghost Lift, which was well-received at SPIEL Essen 25, also made a triumphant return. According to the Engames representative Takafumi Sugiki, the line peaked at 350 people. Still, Bomb Busters did not run out until Sunday, which shows just how many copies they had prepared.

Takafumi Sugiki of Engames is at their bustling booth with Bomb Busters, which is

reportedly scheduled for availability once again in December

In Hall 3, Oink Games was putting up a great fight. They drew attention with eye-catching decorations and by releasing new titles showcased at SPIEL Essen.

The Pokémon Board Game Club booth, which announced next month’s release of Pokémon Goita, was also popular, with Pikachu caps spotted everywhere on attendees ranging from adults to children.

Jun Sasaki of Oink Games

At Pokémon Board Game Club, visitors could play Pokémon Goita

At the regular special booth 本当に面白いユーロゲームの世界 (“The Really Fun World of Euro Games”), visitors could play famous classic games (midweight to light) provided by ten Japanese publishers with rule explanations. I also helped out there on Sunday afternoon for four hours, explaining various games to families, couples, and groups of friends. I think Strike was the most played game there, but quite a few customers also wanted to try Bomb Busters after missing their chance to buy it at Engames. People could purchase the games they played and liked at the neighboring Yellow Submarine booth.

With the increasing number of new releases, opportunities to play long-selling classics may have dwindled lately. I hope events like this give people a chance to experience such masterpieces.

The 本当に面白いユーロゲームの世界 (“The Really Fun World of Euro Games”) booth drew a constant stream of visitors at this Game Market, too

Walking around all day naturally made me a bit peckish. There are also convenience stores and restaurants in Makuhari Messe, but I was drawn to the food trucks by the enticing aromas drifting through the venue. At this Game Market, three food trucks were positioned in a corner each of Halls 3 and 6. I had a roasted, soy sauce-flavor mushroom hamburger in the less crowded Hall 3.

A food court was located in front of the food trucks

The block booths, which featured a variety of displays, were arranged around the standard booths. Alongside Saashi & Saashi and itten, which exhibited at SPIEL Essen 25, as well as Gamestore Banesto, which brought new titles from the event, there was an increasing variety of exhibitors. This included groups that regularly participate in Game Market, those who upgraded from standard booths, and newcomers, including overseas publishers.

I also noticed more overseas attendees, as well as exhibitors striving to explain the games in English. The distribution network of Japanese editions of games brought to market by overseas publishers remains shrouded in mystery. I plan to gather more information on it.

Saashi & Saashi’s new title is Shall We Dance

itten’s new title is Diver Go!

Gamestore Banesto brought new titles from SPIEL Essen 25

BookOff offered a lottery ticket for every purchase of ¥2,000

“Intelligence Assessment Program”, an experiential event created by Riddler, reportedly had over two thousand participants

ADICE introduced their new title, Liar Seven, with vibrant decorations and cosplayers

After some time away, Sugorokuya returned to the Game Market with their Japanese edition of Hellapagos

YOHO Brewing Company, under the Yona Yona Ale brand, presented 無礼講ースター / Burei-Coaster at the Yellow Submarine booth

Due to the rapid increase in exhibitors, standard booths are also experiencing polarization and dispersion. Around seven hundred new indie board game titles are estimated to have been released at this Game Market. Despite pre-Game Market events like Vorspiel, as well as introductions by board game YouTubers, X posts, and flyer distribution at the venue, it is difficult to gain attention.

The topic of zoning came up at this event. Although works rated R18 have always been prohibited at Game Market, an area was designated for works “themed around or emphasizing sexual depictions”. However, this area could not be completely isolated from the other booths. It was located in an area where general attendees, including children, could pass through. Consequently, decorations and displays were not possible, and the area operated on a “bring items from the back to sell on customer request” basis. This rule was applied to four booths at this Game Market, but there seemed to be works emphasizing sexual depictions also at block booths.

Toryo Hojo of LOSER DOGS once again released a game themed on a recent scandal

Azb.Studio‘s new title, announced almost on the day of Game Market, was Originalite, in which players create recipes by stacking transparent cards on top of one another

Following SPIEL Essen 25, Hisashi Hayashi was also busy at Game Market with an autograph session and a special stage. He released his new title, Sushi Otter

Hisashi Hayashi on the special stage

Attendees could send the games they purchased directly from the venue. There was also a temporary storage service where you could store the games in cardboard boxes. People were filling them up like pit stops. Game Market does not end until you have played all the games you bought — but is it possible to play through that many before the next Game Market?

Game Market 2026 Spring is scheduled for May 23–24, 2026, and Game Market 2026 Autumn is scheduled for October 17–18, both at Makuhari Messe.

Temporary storage section for delivery services

Report 2: The Games

The standard booth layout was arranged with long tables divided into small sections. Game Market 2025 Autumn had 1,368 exhibitors over two days, with over seven hundred new titles released. With 948 exhibitors at SPIEL Essen 25, the Game Market numbers alone show the involvement of many groups.

Many of them were indie game creators, either individuals or groups, who used half or all of each long table. Even with brief stops for casual chats along the way, I focused solely on the exhibits, ignoring and not taking the flyers handed out to me. Nevertheless, it took me ten hours over two days to see all booths (averaging less than thirty seconds per

booth).

Below are some of the games that attracted me among those I could photograph the components of at the venue. Even these represent only 5% of the new releases. I conduct a survey on this blog about newly released games after each Game Market, and I will announce the results in a later article to see which game received the highest ratings.

Climbing/Shedding

Best Family Forever from Today (from Mysboard Games) is a shedding game without

numbers. When three colors are played, the phase changes and the number of cards you need to play increases. Despite its appearance, it is quite a competitive game.

13月32日 / The 32nd Day of the 13th Month (from 6jizoGames) is a shedding game in which the strength of cards from 1 to 32 loops and the first card played is the weakest

Dodicitre (from Kentaiki) is a shedding game in which two-digit number cards like “12” can be also be played as two number cards, like “1” and “2”

Storm in a Teacup (from Gomi Kokusai) is a shedding game with only three types of cards without any numbers, namely Tea, Milk, and Lemon. Since cards returned to your hand can be played again, you need to think ahead when choosing which cards to play.

Piplus (from KUJIRADAMA) is a card game that uses D4, D6, and D8 dice. You can use dice rolls to increase card totals or replace card values entirely. You can win by using up all your cards and dice. However, if you use up your dice before your cards, you must re-roll the dice to use them again.

Other Card Games

In DORON: Ninja Trick Taking (from HEX EYE GAMES), players can “doron” (vanish) from a play to bid on the number of tricks they will win. Players can adjust their bids using the chips they have, aiming for a successful bid by fine-tuning.

Wizards Showdown (from Spiral Game) is a poker-like game designed by Masato Uesugi. Players create hands using their cards and community cards, but the points to gain (or lose if defeated) are awarded on a first-come, first-served basis.

Dexterity & Gimmicks

Snowp (from SzpiLAB) is a dexterity game in which players flick rings from the edge of the board to capture bells inside the rings. Matching bell colors yields higher scores.

In たぬきとわがしとししおどし / Tanuki, Sweets, and Shishi-Odoshi (from AsobyTukoos), players put wooden balls into a segmented bamboo tube that is pivoted to one side of its balance point (“shishi-odoshi”). When enough balls accumulate in the upper end of the tube, they eventually move the tube’s center of gravity past the pivot. This causes the tube to rotate and dump out the balls. The player who put in the last ball loses, and the player with the most balls inside wins. There are also some larger, heavier balls.

ダシヌケッ！ / Dash-I-Nuke (from Kawasaki Factory) is a multiplayer Spit game in which players race to toss number cards into a box in specific orders. It is a remake of Wild Rush, which was released 21 years ago.

ゆび感クレーンゲーム チャンピョンシップ / Finger Crane Game Championship (from Suki Games and Tentsuku Games) is a dexterity game in which players take turns grabbing a specified number of cards from the deck. Other players predict the outcome, and gain points if they guess correctly.

勉強 / Benkyo (“Study”) (from TANSANFABRIK) is a pen-and-paper game in which you study five academic subjects — Literature, Social Studies, Math, Science, and English — for three minutes each, then take an exam. The questions come in authentic-looking envelopes.

Soup Scoop (from Monobees) is a dexterity game in which players use a spoon to scoop specified ingredients. Beads count as penalty points, but speed is prioritized, so mixing them in is unavoidable to some degree.

The new edition of Candibury (from Northgame) sold for 70,000 yen. As expected, the ten limited copies sold out quickly.

Euro-Style

Prema et Labora (from tete-a-tete × Koguma Koubou) is a set-collection game in which players harvest grapes, put them in a squeezer, fill barrels, and make friends. The squeezing mechanism, which acts as a randomizer, is impressive.

Bluolino (from Sui Works) is a worker-placement game in which players move across six regions and build cities by constructing buildings. Action spaces vary through wheel combinations. To use resources, they must be placed in the area where you build.

Bengara (from Sutekina Yama) is a two-player tile- and worker-placement game set in Okayama, Japan. Players must make difficult choices, such as matching icons on tiles to gain resources or enclosing areas with paths to create districts.

時空旅行の時代 / Era of Time Travel (from A.I.Lab.遊) is the publisher’s tenth anniversary commemorative game. It is a combination of a rondel, worker-placement, and area-majority game. Players place workers while traveling through the author’s previous games to gain majorities.

In Splentia (from K*), players use miner tokens drawn from the bag to collect gems and arrange them into specific shapes to craft jewelwork. Over time, players can create larger pieces of jewelwork.

Leiden 1637 – The End of Tulip Mania (from Spieldisorder) is a sequel to Leiden 1593 – The Beginning of Tulip Cultivation. To plant tulips and control the market for profit, players swap the cards in their hand with the cards in the play area.

In Monster Estate (from Panpas), you sell houses on plots of land where monsters may appear unexpectedly. You can either sell the estate before a monster appears or wait and hope that it doesn’t show up.

Pattern Recognition

絶対ネオン感 / Absolute Neon Sense (from KogeKogeDo) is a pattern-recognition game in which players arrange cards according to the length of the neon lines. The actual length is indicated on the back of each card.

In Happy Photo (from Sato Familie), using a map like in MicroMacro: Crime City, players listen to the leader’s description and try to locate the spot on the map as indicated on each card. The cards also list words forbidden from being used.

うんこ探偵 / Poop Detective (from Mosaic Gakari) is a game in which players must find the poop generated from nine tiles among face-down tiles. Similar-looking fake tiles are not poop. I bought it on the spot.

Parfait! (from yonoBiii) is a co-operative game in which players select and draw pieces from a bag based on their feel and stack them with matching fruit symbols to earn high scores. They said they made the pieces and the box with a 3D printer.

Communication

僅差線引屋 / Kinsa Senbikiya (“Almost Barely”) (from Kakugari Books) is a communication game to draw the line between what is almost or barely something, such as “What is almost or barely edible?”

In The Eryngii Mushroom’s Family (from Yamada’s House), players guess which photo corresponds to a story the game master made up based on an Eryngii mushroom photo. Once you hear the story, you start to see it that way.

In My Fave Manga (from Futabaku Games), players each bring a manga. A bookmark is randomly inserted for the players to read the corresponding page. Then, using cards, they predict what will happen on the next page. This game was produced under the direction of Noriaki Watanabe of Drosselmeyer & Co., Ltd.

Race

In Cross Golems (from RMBC), you combine two cards to move your player token and collect treasure. The value of treasure stolen by the dragon increases. It was the most popular title in our poll ゲームマーケット2025秋：注目の新作ボードゲーム (Most Anticipated New Releases at Tokyo Game Market 2025 Autumn).

You’ve GOAT Mail (from Kumanote Kikaku) is a game to deliver letters to the addresses specified on the cards. You can also travel on water by riding on a bird.

Battle

Kaiju on the Earth: LEGENDS Gamera (from Kadokawa) is an asymmetric battle royale game featuring monsters from the Heisei Gamera film trilogy. Players compete to deal the most damage until someone is eliminated or rounds progress until mana runs out.

Designed by Yusuke Sato, Prison Battle (from New Board Game Party) is a two-player team elimination match featuring cyborg prisoners. The prisoners’ unique abilities can lead to unexpected outcomes.

Simultaneous Blind Bidding & Press-Your-Luck

In Cryptid Spot (from POLAR POND GAMES), players search for unidentified creatures while engaging in simultaneous blind bidding. However, a mysterious character lurks among the players, deliberately canceling out numbers by bidding the same amount.

Cheat Hopper (from Studio Citrine) is a racing game in which players advance according to the outcomes of rock-paper-scissors card battles. The cards are played sequentially, not simultaneously. Winning with rock reverses your direction, allowing you to lose on purpose.

カケルくんのじゃんけんカードゲーム / Kakeru-kun’s Rock-Paper-Scissors Card Game (from Saikikaku x kurumari) was created in collaboration with the Kozenhonten seaweed product shop in Asakusa, Tokyo.

Dangerous Sweets (from Brekeke Games) is a press-your-luck game in which players take turns flipping sweet cards. Whoever reveals a “hot” card is eliminated. The words “delicious” and “hot” are printed on the cards in various languages.

Pen and Paper

FRAMLET! (from One More Game!) is a flip-and-write game in which players create patterns with gravity-affected polyominoes in a Tetris style. The first player to create eachpattern earns a bonus.

In Roguewrite (from Fudacoma Games), players build a dungeon in the first half through roll & write, then stack all the dungeons for adventurers to explore in the second half. Dealing more damage to adventurers yields higher scores.

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