I picked up a copy from Nekomado. The cost after shipping (airmail) was about $25 a game and it took exactly 3 weeks to arrive.
It was extremely well packaged – not a surprise if you’ve ever been to a Japanese supermarket. The shipping box itself was a little beat up, but inside the three games were “giftwrapped in bubble wrap. Lovely.
The game itself is exactly as “advertised”. The wooden pieces are nice and the board in fine shape.
Is $25 a bit much for a box with 8 wooden pieces (with stickers), a board, and two cardboard inserts to keep it from bouncing around? Yes and no. The art is cute as hell, the board does the job. It’s certainly nicer than my clumsy DIY set that never gets played. This will make a perfect present for my gamenight hosts and also my sister, so yes, totally worth it.
The rules are simple, you move your pieces one space according to the dots on the pieces. If the chick moves into the last row it can flip over to a chicken with additional movement. If you capture a piece, you can spend a turn dropping it anywhere on the board instead of moving a piece (a previously captured chicken comes back in as a chick and won’t get automatically upgraded if you drop it in the last row).
The goal is to capture your opponent’s Lion or to get your Lion to the opponent’s row (and not be immediately captured the turn after)
And how does the game play? I put it in a similar category as Nine Men’s Morris – a light two player perfect information abstract. I suspect it is too light for hardcore people who love the GIPF series or traditional abstracts. I shy away from such epic affairs, so this is a perfect fit. Simple to teach, cute art, and the gameplay is really fun. There are tough decisions, and the capture and drop mechanic makes for an “foreign” game experience for those of us who haven’t played Shogi.
Again, is it worth it? As I mentioned earlier, I made my own DIY set before jumping in and importing it from Japan, and I strongly encourage you to do the same. Or try out one of the phone apps out there. If you enjoy the game and would appreciate the better production, then yes, it’s a good value even if you have to import it from Japan. It’s not a steal, but certainly a fair exchange.
P.S. I also bought a children’s problem book when I got the games – physically it’s a nice little book, the graphics are well done and match game. However, the problems are so simple that you don’t get anything out of it that you wouldn’t learn in your first play of the game. Even so, it makes for a nice gift set.