It’s not often that you come across a board game that’s hard to compare to something else you’ve played. Kabuto Sumo is one of those games. At its simplest, this bug sumo wrestling game is all about shoving pieces out of an arena, but appearances can be deceiving. The game is exciting and unpredictable, just how you want a wrestling match to be, and we had a fantastic time playing it with our special guest Petrana Radulovic on our latest episode of Overboard.
In a game of Kabuto Sumo, players attempt to push their opponent’s wrestling figure out of the arena, either alone or as a team of two. They do this by sliding pieces (in small, medium, or large variants) into a crowded board of discs and bugs. This usually results in one or more figures being knocked out of the arena. If it’s a player’s bug piece, they’re KO’d and their opponent wins! But more likely, they’ll just push out some normal pieces that will be added to that player’s stash for future turns.
The next comparison that came to mind for this “disc push” gameplay wasn’t even a board game. Rather, it was those coin-slide games you see in bowling alley arcades and Chuck E. Cheese venues.
These “games” are very different Kabuto Sumothey have one thing in common: they both fool you into thinking that sliding discs will be in a straight line simply.
As it turns out, two or three discs in a row can move in all sorts of unpredictable directions. But it pays off Only often enough that it can be worth the risk if, say, you can shove a particularly coveted character (or maybe even an opponent) out of the ring across the arena. This means that each round you (and your teammate) must decide whether to play it safe or go broke. These kinds of high-risk, high-reward decisions make the game feel like an exciting wrestling match – even if you only push small discs.
The wrestlers themselves provide more color and chaos. At the beginning of a Kabuto Sumo Match, each player can select a wrestler with two signature moves. One of these moves adds a tactical twist to your playstyle. Maybe you’re stealing stones from an opponent that touch your wrestling stones, or you get an extra turn when you’re on the edge of the arena.
The other signature move usually gives you access to your special piece, which you can slide into the arena instead of a regular piece. These signature pieces can be incredibly useful, but you usually have to pay for a few pieces just to get them.
You can see Kabuto Sumo See for yourself in our Let’s Play at the top of this post. If you like it, check out the rest of ours Episodes Overboard past ours Youtube channel!
