The Best Games from Hobby Japan 🇯🇵🏢 2025

So Clover! is a cooperative word-association game that challenges players to think creatively and work together. The essence of the game is to generate and guess keywords based on shared features, aiming to achieve the highest possible team score.

Codenames is a captivating and popular party game that involves clever wordplay and deduction. Two teams compete, each led by a spymaster who knows the secret identities of 25 agents, represented by cards bearing single-word codenames like "disease," "Germany," or even "carrot." The objective is for each team to be the first to correctly identify all their agents based on clues given by their spymaster, while avoiding the dangerous assassin.

MicroMacro: Crime City is a unique detective game that immerses players into a detailed and expansive cityscape to solve intriguing crimes. The game centers around a large, detailed map of a city where various crimes have occurred. Players become detectives tasked with unraveling these mysteries using the clues scattered across the city.

A dark rumor arises from Mordor, and the time has come for the Fellowship to unite once more. Players can choose to defend the free peoples as the Fellowship of the Ring or pursue Frodo and Sam as Sauron, deploying their hordes at enemy city gates. The fate of Middle-earth rests in your hands as you navigate the three chapters of the game, strengthening your skills and gathering resources to achieve one of the victory conditions.

MicroMacro: Crime City – Full House is a captivating detective game that expands upon the original MicroMacro: Crime City. Players become sleuths, examining a giant city map (75 x 110 cm) filled with intricate details to solve various crimes. This edition includes 16 new cases, each offering a unique story and set of challenges that require players to scrutinize the map to uncover hidden information and trace suspects' movements.

Dixit Odyssey combines the essence of a standalone game and an expansion for the award-winning Dixit by Jean-Louis Roubira, renowned for winning Germany's Spiel des Jahres award in 2010.

Azul invites you to step into the captivating world of Portuguese artistry and craftsmanship. This board game draws inspiration from the introduction of azulejos, originally white and blue ceramic tiles, by the Moors. The tiles found a new home in Portugal when King Manuel I, during a visit to the Alhambra palace in Southern Spain, was enchanted by the exquisite Moorish decorative tiles adorning its interior. Filled with awe and inspiration, the king promptly ordered the embellishment of his own palace in Portugal with similar decorative tiles. As a skilled tile-laying artist, you are tasked with the prestigious mission of adorning the walls of the Royal Palace of Evora.

7 Wonders Duel takes the essence of the classic 7 Wonders and refines it for an intense two-player experience. It retains the thematic elements of building a civilization through acquiring various types of cards, but it introduces unique mechanics suited for a duel.

Patchwork is a two-player game where you compete to create the most beautiful and high-scoring patchwork quilt on your personal 9x9 game board.

In the bustling city of Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, you find yourself in a fierce competition as one of the two most powerful traders. However, being a prominent trader isn't enough; the ultimate goal is to earn two coveted "seals of excellence" to secure an invitation to the Maharaja's prestigious court. To outshine your direct competitor, you'll need to demonstrate superior trading skills by buying, exchanging, and selling goods at advantageous prices, all while carefully managing your valuable camel herds.

Embark on a collaborative journey of espionage in Codenames Duet, where the familiar elements of Codenames persist – providing one-word clues to unveil your agents among those on the table. This time, however, you and your teammate work together to uncover all your agents, adding a thrilling cooperative dimension to the challenge. The mystery of not knowing your agents from the outset adds an intriguing layer to the mission, raising questions that even Congressional investigators might ponder later!

Wavelength is a unique and engaging social guessing game that requires players to tap into their ability to communicate and interpret conceptual clues. This game stands out for its emphasis on understanding and interpreting the perspectives of others, making it an ideal choice for groups looking for a fun and thought-provoking experience.

Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 offers an extraordinary gaming experience as a cooperative campaign game, immersing players in an overarching story-arc that unfolds over 12-24 gripping sessions. The duration depends on your group's performance and the fate of the world. Here's an overview of this thrilling journey:

Embark on a journey of bluffing and suspense with Skull & Roses. This game is the epitome of strategic cunning, where every move unfolds in the minds of the players. Each participant starts by placing a face-down card, gradually revealing them one by one. The thrill escalates as players confidently claim the ability to uncover cards adorned only with roses. But beware, as opponents can challenge and bid to reveal even more cards. The highest bidder must then courageously unveil the specified number, hoping for a bed of roses and not the dreaded skull. Successfully navigating this bluffing showdown requires a poker face and unwavering eye contact, with victory hinging on two successful challenges.

MicroMacro: Crime City – All In is the latest installment in the MicroMacro: Crime City series, offering players a new district of the black-and-white, crime-ridden metropolis known as Crime City to explore. This edition comes with a fresh, large city map that connects seamlessly with the maps from previous games, presenting 16 new and more complex crime cases for players to solve.

Players build landscapes by placing colored tiles to create habitats for their animals. To score the most points and win, they must cleverly integrate these habitats into their landscapes and attract as many animals as possible.

Heat: Pedal to the Metal is a dynamic and strategic racing board game that simulates the thrill and intricacies of car racing. It offers players a chance to experience the excitement of racing while managing crucial elements like speed, car upgrades, and varying track conditions.

Dixit is a beautifully imaginative and simple card game that emphasizes creativity and interpretation. Each turn, a player becomes the storyteller, selecting a card from their hand and giving a sentence or phrase inspired by the card’s image. The other players then choose cards from their hands that they feel best match the storyteller's sentence.

In Junk Art, creativity knows no bounds as players transform a pile of junk into stunning works of art. With more than ten engaging game modes and over sixty vibrant wooden or plastic components, this game invites you to explore your artistic talents like never before.

Sea Salt & Paper is a set collection card game that combines strategic decision-making with the excitement of timing your moves just right. Similar to Rummy in gameplay, it involves collecting sets of cards to score points, while also navigating the timing of when to end the round for optimal advantage.

Splendor Duel is an intriguing two-player game that builds upon the foundation of its predecessor, Splendor, enhancing it with new layers of strategy and competitiveness. Designed specifically for two players, this standalone game maintains the core elements of Splendor while introducing novel twists and mechanics, making it more dynamic and interactive.

Showdown is the fourth and final installment of the MicroMacro: Crime City series, featuring a new city map and brand-new criminal cases. The 16 cases included can be played independently of the previous games. Players work together to solve tricky cases, investigate motives, find evidence, and catch the culprits, relying on sharp observation and creative deduction skills.

Uncover the mystery behind peculiar symbols on the map in Codenames: Pictures, where these enigmatic codes signify locations where spies connect with secret agents. In this clandestine world, two rival spymasters possess knowledge of the agents in each location, communicating coded messages to guide their field operatives to discreet meetings. Operatives must navigate these visual puzzles with utmost precision, as a decoding misstep might lead to an unfortunate encounter with an enemy agent – or worse, an encounter with the deadly assassin! The race is on for both teams to contact all their agents, but only one can emerge victorious.

Stella: Dixit Universe offers a fresh and competitive twist to the beloved Dixit game, inviting players to dive into a world where interpretation and intuition meet under the stars. As Starseekers, players will explore thematic imagery on Dixit cards, using a shared clue to guide their choices and strategically score points by aligning their interpretations with those of others.

Players simultaneously attempt to replicate an image using one of five different materials: building blocks, sticks and stones, picture cards, colored dice, or a rope. Afterward, each player guesses which of the 16 displayed images was copied. The game concludes after five rounds, with each player having used every material once. It is also language-independent.

Players embark on twelve journeys through North America as 19th-century pioneers. Starting on the East Coast, they face challenges while aiming to complete ticket objectives and develop new skills to overcome unexpected events and rivals. As the campaign progresses, players unlock new rules and content, creating a uniquely tailored experience that evolves with their choices, resulting in a game that can be enjoyed for a lifetime.

King of Tokyo: Dark Edition is a limited collector's edition of the popular game King of Tokyo. Set in an alternative, darker version of Tokyo, this edition brings a new level of intensity to the battle for control of the city.

Project L is a dynamic and visually appealing board game that combines tile-matching with engine-building elements. It's designed to challenge players with its strategic depth, encapsulated within an elegant and simple design. The game features unique triple-layer 3D puzzles and attractive acrylic pieces, making it not only a test of intellect but also a delight to play.

The Resistance: Avalon is a standalone game set in the legendary world of King Arthur, combining the mechanics of secret identities and deduction found in The Resistance with a thematic backdrop of Arthurian legend and the struggle between good and evil.

Men At Work is a dexterity game that challenges players to become the most skilled and careful construction workers on the job site. The goal is to build a towering structure of steel girders and wooden beams, placing workers and bricks with precision to avoid any disastrous collapses. Players must balance risk-taking with cautious strategy to outmaneuver their opponents and impress Rita, the tough-as-nails boss, in hopes of being named Employee of the Month.