Play BS Heisei Gunjin Shougi (Japan) Online

BS Heisei Gunjin Shougi is one of those weird, wonderful SNES games that makes you go, "Wait, this was a thing?" It’s shogi—Japan’s answer to chess—but someone decided to swap out the elegant samurai pieces for a ragtag military crew. Your pawns are now foot soldiers, your bishop is a helicopter, and the king? Yeah, that’s a tank now. Somehow, it works.

The whole thing has this late-'90s Japanese TV game show vibe (probably because it was originally beamed via satellite to players’ consoles). The strategy’s still deep, but the presentation is pure Saturday-morning-cartoon energy. First time I played, I lost horribly because I underestimated how aggressive those little infantry guys could be. Lesson learned.

If you dig obscure retro games or just want shogi with a side of absurdity, this one’s worth digging up. Just don’t blame me when you lose three matches in a row to a surprise airstrike.