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Game News, Shop and Merchandise

Dragon Quest Gets a Game of Life Collab — Out in Japan October 2026

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Takara Tomy’s legendary Jinsei Game — Japan’s equivalent of the Game of Life — is crossing over with Dragon Quest for the first time in its 85-edition history. Dragon Quest 人生ゲーム (Dragon Quest Jinsei Game) launches in Japan on 24 October 2026, celebrating the franchise’s 40th anniversary, and pre-orders opened today (17 August) at the Takara Tomy Mall and Amazon Japan. English-language media have not yet covered the announcement, which broke across Japanese gaming outlets including Famitsu (Japanese) and Game Watch Impress (Japanese) this morning.

Dragon Quest Game of Life — What It Is

Dragon Quest 人生ゲーム annotated game board showing key squares including Dharma Temple and final boss Zoma
Image courtesy of Square Enix / Takara Tomy

The game takes the classic Jinsei Game board-game format and wraps it entirely in the Dragon Quest universe. Players begin as an adventurer mounted in a horse-drawn carriage — the traditional car token replaced by a DQ-themed wagon — and travel a sprawling board filled with franchise landmarks: the Dharma Temple, Ruidia’s bar, and ultimately a final showdown against the Demon King Zoma. The player who reaches the goal with the most gold wins.

The game supports 2–6 players, is rated for ages 6 and up, and the board measures 520 × 420 mm — a footprint familiar to anyone who’s played Jinsei Game before. Seven companion-pin types represent Adventurer, Hero, Sage, Warrior, Priest, Mage, and Entertainer roles, each cast in a different colour.

How the Board Plays

Dragon Quest Game of Life event squares including Baby Satan encounter and treasure chest rewards
Image courtesy of Square Enix / Takara Tomy

Movement is driven by a spinner roulette, true to the classic Jinsei Game format. Board squares trigger Dragon Quest-style encounters: a Baby Satan might cast Ionazun and drain your Gold, or a treasure chest could hand you a coveted Small Medal. Companion-check squares add real strategic weight — land on one without a Mage or Sage in your party and you lose 12,000 Gold; have the right ally, and you walk away richer instead.

Small Medals — the collectible coins that DQ fans know from the mainline games — accumulate throughout the run and can be exchanged for powerful item cards, including a Metal King Shield valued at 100,000 Gold.

Game Pieces and Components

Dragon Quest Game of Life game pieces including carriage tokens and adventurer, hero, and companion pins in six colours
Image courtesy of Square Enix / Takara Tomy

Component highlights worth noting:

  • Carriage pieces: Six colours replace the classic car token — each a horse-drawn DQ wagon
  • Adventurer and Hero pins: White for your starting Adventurer; swap to gold when you meet the conditions to class up to Hero
  • Companion pins: Colour-coded peg pieces for Sage, Warrior, Monk, Mage, and Entertainer — load up your carriage or leave yourself exposed on enemy squares

Recruit Companions and Class-Change at Dharma Temple

Dragon Quest Game of Life companion cards for Warrior, Monk, Mage, Entertainer, and Sage professions with gold values
Image courtesy of Square Enix / Takara Tomy

Recruiting the right companions is where the strategy lives. Warrior, Monk, Mage, and Entertainer cards are each worth 20,000 Gold and protect you on specific board squares. Land on the Dharma Temple and meet the correct conditions and you can class-change to Sage — worth a premium 40,000 Gold and unlocking board advantages available only to the Sage class. Upgrading your Adventurer pin all the way to a Hero pin is a separate, harder-to-reach milestone.

The Zoma Finale and Item Cards

Dragon Quest Game of Life item cards including Shoes of Happiness and Orb of Light, with Demon King Zoma boss art
Image courtesy of Square Enix / Takara Tomy

Before crossing the finish line, every player must face Demon King Zoma in a roulette battle — there’s no skipping the final boss. Certain item cards tip the outcome in your favour: the Shoes of Happiness (70,000 Gold) and the Orb of Light (50,000 Gold) both carry special effects in the Zoma encounter, so hoarding them is a legitimate long-game strategy. Survive and you reach the goal as a Legendary Hero; lose enough Gold and the title slips away.

Release Date, Pricing, and Where to Import

Dragon Quest 人生ゲーム is a Japan-domestic release priced at ¥7,150 (tax included) — roughly S$62–65 at current exchange rates. Pre-orders are live from today at the Takara Tomy Mall and on Amazon Japan. Physical stock hits toy specialists, department stores, and mass retailers across Japan on 24 October 2026.

No Singapore or Southeast Asia retail release has been announced. For local fans, the most practical route is Amazon Japan via a freight-forwarding or proxy shopping service. The board and cards are in Japanese, so this is best suited for Dragon Quest fans comfortable with basic Japanese or those adding it to a DQ40 anniversary collection. For more on the broader celebrations, see our Dragon Quest XII: Beyond Dreams reveal and DQ40 anniversary roundup. More DQ40 merchandise and event news are also listed in our Game News section.

Game News, Shop and Merchandise

Pokémon Shushushu! Out Now in Japan — The Card-Flinging Board Game Worth Importing

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The Pokémon Company has launched its fourth official tabletop game in Japan, and it might be the most fun one yet: Pokémon Shushushu! (ポケモンシュシュシュ！) went on sale today, July 30, exclusively at Pokémon Center stores and Pokémon Center Online Japan. For Singapore Pokémon fans who regularly import from Japan, this is a solid pick-up at under ¥2,000.

Pokémon Shushushu! product detail
Image courtesy of The Pokémon Company

How Pokémon Shushushu! Works

The concept is brilliantly tactile. Every Pokémon card in the game has a number printed on it. On your turn, you physically flick or throw a Poké Ball card across the table — if it lands covering all the numbers on a Pokémon’s card, that Pokémon is caught and added to your score pile. The player who racks up the highest total wins.

The official press release (Japanese) names four throwing techniques you can deploy: the shuriken throw, the mountain throw, the drop throw, and the spin throw. That immediately makes it a dexterity contest as much as anything else, which fits perfectly as a party or family game. Special Poké Ball cards with unique catch-effects add a strategic wrinkle on top.

Watch It in Action

【公式】『ポケモンシュシュシュ！』プロモーション映像 — via ポケモン公式YouTubeチャンネル on YouTube

Cards, Contents, and the Pokémon Inside

The complete card list has not been published, but the Famitsu hands-on preview (Japanese) confirms the box includes a set of Pokémon cards and several Poké Ball card types, with certain Pokémon triggering bonus effects when caught. Some Poké Ball cards carry special mechanics that shake up the standard catch rules, keeping the game unpredictable round to round.

Pokémon Shushushu! gameplay contents
Image courtesy of The Pokémon Company

Price and How Singapore Fans Can Get It

Pokémon Shushushu! is priced at 1,760 yen (tax included) — around S$16 at the current rate, before shipping. The game is a Japan-exclusive release through three official channels:

  • Pokémon Center stores in Japan
  • Pokémon Center Online Japan (ships internationally, including Singapore)
  • Amazon.co.jp’s official Pokémon Store listing

There is no confirmed global release date and no announcement that The Pokémon Company plans to bring Shushushu! to other markets. Your clearest options as a Singapore fan are ordering directly through Pokémon Center Online Japan, which handles international shipping, or routing through a Japan proxy or forwarding service. Given the ¥1,760 price tag, shipping costs will likely exceed the game itself — worth bundling with other Japan-exclusive Pokémon merch if you have a cart building up.

Pokémon Shushushu! promotional announcement image
Image courtesy of The Pokémon Company

The Growing Series of Official Pokémon Board Games

Shushushu! is the fourth entry in The Pokémon Company’s line of party-style tabletop games, following Pokémon Babanuki, Pokémon Babanuki Super High Tension, and Pokémon Taruka. Each game takes a simple real-world mechanic — card tricks, flicking — and wraps it in Pokémon. None of these titles get wide global distribution, which makes them appealing to collectors and fans who like having something physically unique from Japan.

Pokémon Shushushu! card spread
Image courtesy of The Pokémon Company

For more Japan-exclusive Pokémon picks and local merchandise news, check out our shop and merchandise coverage.

News

Pokémon’s New Team Rocket Card Game Drops November 2026

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Pikachu isn’t the hero this time. The Pokémon Company and YOKA Games quietly dropped the announcement of 「お前、もしかしてロケット圧？」 — “Are You Perhaps Team Rocket?” in English — on the official @poke_times Pokémon X account (Japanese) today, 14 July 2026. The card-based board game is slated to launch in Japan in November 2026.

A Villain-Themed Pokémon Card Game With a Twist

The key visual says it all: a hooded Rocket Grunt grins in the centre, flanked by a snarling, red-eyed Pikachu and a Koffing sporting a jolly-roger-style logo against a vivid yellow background. Two in-progress card samples appear in the lower corner — the images are explicitly marked “development versions” and subject to change.

Team Rocket Grunt, villainous Pikachu and Koffing from the Pokemon Are You Perhaps Team Rocket key art
Image courtesy of The Pokémon Company

Gameplay details — player count, card mechanics, win conditions — have not been revealed yet. The Pokémon official account simply teased: “續報をお楽しみに” (more information to come). What the key visual does confirm is that this is a card-driven game developed through the “ポケモンボドゲくらぶ” (Pokémon Boardgame Club) label, the same initiative that brought us Pokémon Goita in December 2025 and Pokémon Plakoro, which we covered last week. The Pokémon Company is clearly on a serious analogue-gaming run, with the Boardgame Club label becoming a proper sub-brand.

Who Is YOKA Games?

YOKA Games is a Chinese board game designer and publisher with a global catalogue. Their best-known title in Western tabletop circles is Sanguosha (三国油 / Three Kingdoms Kill), a popular elimination card game that has sold millions of copies across Asia and beyond. More recently, they co-produced the widely praised Slay the Spire: The Board Game. Their involvement signals that “Are You Perhaps Team Rocket?” is aiming for a polished, strategically meaty experience rather than a casual party game — though we’ll have to wait for the full reveal to be sure.

What Singapore Pokémon Fans Need to Know

As of this announcement, the November 2026 release is confirmed for Japan only. No English localisation, no Singapore or Southeast Asia release date, and no price have been disclosed. Given YOKA Games’ international distribution track record, a wider release is plausible — but for now, plan for this to be an import if you want it at launch.

If you’re into importing Japanese analogue games, your usual go-to stops — import retailers that ship from Japan, Japanese online platforms like BOOTH, and local tabletop shops that stock Japanese imports — should be on your watchlist. Pokémon Goita and Plakoro both found their way to local collectors through those channels, and “Are You Perhaps Team Rocket?” should follow the same path. Watch for pre-order windows opening closer to November.

Singapore’s tabletop scene has been in excellent shape — WSBG Asia 2026 just wrapped at Suntec City last weekend — and a Pokémon card game built around playing the bad guys sounds exactly like the sort of title that’ll generate buzz at local game nights. Check out more upcoming gaming events in Singapore while you wait for the full reveal.

Event

WSBG Asia 2026: Singapore’s Biggest Board Game Weekend Is in Its Final Day

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Singapore’s largest competitive board game carnival closes its three-day run today, and if you haven’t been yet, there may still be time to make it to Pico Creative Centre for the final sessions of WSBG Asia 2026.

WSBG Asia 2026 — 16 Games, One Path to the Final Four, featuring real players at the tournament
Image courtesy of WSBG Asia

Asia’s Biggest Board Game Championship, Right Here in Singapore

WSBG Asia is the official Asia satellite of the World Series of Board Gaming (WSBG), backed by the Singapore Tourism Board. Building on its inaugural 2025 edition, the 2026 event is significantly larger — more championship titles, a bigger game library, and an experience that literally takes place on the Singapore Flyer.

The event spans three zones: competitive tournament brackets, a sprawling Carnival Zone, and exclusive social game experiences, making it accessible to everyone from first-timers to seasoned competitive players.

Compete for a Seat at the Vegas Global Final

This is where the stakes get real. WSBG Asia 2026 runs official tournaments across 16 championship titles. Every Asia Champion walks away with a Global Ticket — a first-round bye at the WSBG Global Final in Las Vegas. The overall grand champion also takes home a SGD $1,000 flight sponsorship to make the trip.

Brackets run across Phoenix Games and Asian Playoffs formats. If your game of choice is sold out, waitlist slots can be applied for at thejokergame.com/wsbg-waitlist.

WSBG Asia 2026 新加坡 — via Joker Game 愚人博弈 on YouTube

The Carnival Zone — 250+ Games for Everyone

Not here to compete? The Carnival Zone is a library of over 250 board games, open to Carnival ticket holders. It’s a space built for exploring, demoing, and casual play — with scheduled workshops running throughout the weekend:

  • Intro to Tabletop Gaming
  • Becoming a Game Master
  • How to Design Your Own Board Game

Social game experiences on offer include Blood on the Clocktower, Joker Game Experience, The Hero Is Dead, and Murder Mystery of The Dead — familiar names to anyone in Singapore’s tabletop scene.

Players at a WSBG Asia event session with the WSBG Asia Singapore banner in the background
Image courtesy of WSBG Asia

Celebrity Lineup — Including The Devil’s Plan’s Tino

WSBG Asia 2026 has put together a pan-Asian creator lineup that bridges competitive gaming and tabletop culture:

  • Dr. huoshu — Tsinghua PhD, strategy icon, and brain-show TV star with over 5 million followers
  • Xiao Cang — esports veteran and the iconic Mandarin voice of League of Legends, with over 7 million followers
  • Tino — familiar to Singapore fans of Netflix’s The Devil’s Plan, and a board game YouTuber with 42K followers
  • Jiaqi Lin — China’s number-one board game content creator with 3 million followers
WSBG Asia 2026 Dream Lineup of Game Icons featuring Dr. huoshu, Xiao Cang, Tino, and Jiaqi Lin
Image courtesy of WSBG Asia

The World’s Highest Board Game Match — On the Singapore Flyer

The VIP Skyline Challenge is the event’s signature set piece. A featured board game match is played by invited guests and celebrities inside a Singapore Flyer capsule — billed as the world’s highest rotating board game showcase. VIP ticket holders get a dedicated viewing window, premium hospitality, priority access to guest interactions, and an exclusive commemorative gift pack.

Can You Still Go Today?

Today (Monday 13 July) is the final day of WSBG Asia 2026. Walk-in Carnival Zone access may still be available, though most competitive tournament brackets will have concluded their qualifying rounds. For live availability, check the official event page or Klook.

Events like WSBG Asia — Singapore Tourism Board-supported, with Las Vegas qualifier routes and a multi-million-follower creator roster — reflect just how far Singapore’s tabletop gaming scene has come. Keep an eye on our events archive for more of what’s on.