For every Poképroduct that became a beloved classic in America, there’s three that never made it out of Japan. Case in point – Plakoro was a dice battling board game published by Bandai during the original Pokémania of 1997, featuring customizable energy dice and distinctly cube-shaped Pokémon players would roll to attack one another. To celebrate Pokémon’s 30th anniversary Bandai is bringing the classic game back into production, with six starter sets confirmed to release this Summer.
To be clear, so far these are only confirmed as releasing in Japan. It will at least be a lot easier for Pokémon fans outside Japan to get their hands on them than it was in the ’90s, thanks to the massive expansion of international e-commerce since the turn of the millennium. But unless Bandai announces some support for English language players, we’ll have to rely on fan translations to play the game. That will feel like a real blast from the past for anyone who remembers trying to play the best board games of the late ’90s – though that time fans were translating French and German games.
Regardless, I suspect there’s going to be a lot of demand from collectors for Plakoro anyway, because it features a) Pokémon and b) small cute things. The game uses customizable energy dice: rolling the right energy symbols lets your Pokémon use the attacks from a selection of attack cards. And if your little cubic ‘Mon lands the wrong way up, the attack fumbles. Simple and effective gameplay with a devilish line in collectibility.
The first six starter sets – Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Pikachu, Eevee, Mew – will release in July, and are listed on the Japanese Bandai website for 990 Yen – about $6.30 / £4.70. Five more starters are due between September and November, and then for December the first three ‘Evolution sets’ will release. Additional Pokémon will be sold in blind purchase “Exploration boxes”, so if this ever does make it to America, I think we all know where it’s going to end – unboxing videos on TikTok and fist-fights in Target.
Did you or an older relative happen to catch Plakoro the first time around? Is there another Japanese Pokémon product you would trade your firstborn Pikachu to get your hands on? Or another Japanese board game you think desperately needs an English language release? Let us know in the Wargamer Discord community.
Source: Wargamer
