• Shinjuku
• Designer: Gary Kacmarcik
• Publisher: Rigoler
• Player Count: 2-4
• Time: 60 minutes

Shinjuku (the busiest train station in Tokyo) is a network and pick up and delivery game set in Tokyo, As the owners of competing companies, players build stores and rail lines for customers to get to their stores earning victory points at the end of the game.

The game was initially web published. Pictured is the Japanese edition and per posts made by the designer an International edition is in the works. The box in only 1.5″ deep so not much wasted space. The wooden components are very nice except the yellow tokens have white printing which is difficult to see. There is a hanabi festival token and, the game comes with a wooden Kaiju meeple! The cards and board are of good quality. The board shows the 23 wards of Tokyo. The cards represent various wards on the map. Each ward may have small stations and/or big stations.

To play, players take their tracks, specialty stores and department stores. Specialty stores sell only one type of goods (rice, clothing, books and electronics) while department stores sell all types. Four location cards are dealt to each player.

Customer tokens are drawn from the bag placed on the board randomly by drawing location cards. Consumer tokens each have a type of good printed on them in one or two quantities. Four location cards are placed in the display and two consumers are randomly drawn and placed on the cards in the que. 

On a turn, a new customer(s) is placed on the board and the active player gains the first card in the display. The player then moves the festival token to an adjacent ward.  The player may then take any two of the following actions, but each action only once. Most actions require a player to use a matching location card of the ward where they wish to perform the action.

1. Players may open a specialty store in a small or large station by using a card.
2. Players may upgrade a specialty store to a department store at a large station with a card and a matching customer token. They also gain department star tokens.
3. Players may always build one track for free. If they wish to build 2 tracks they must use a location card and start the build in that ward and the second track must be built off the first.
4. Move customers from one of the stations in the ward matching the card. The customers start at a station and travel any tracks along a line. Any customers matching stores (one per store) along that line will be gained by the owner of the store. Any leftover customers are placed in the ward of the last stop as determined by the active player. If another player’s track is used they may get one free income action no matter how many tracks are used.
5. The income action does not require a card and taking this action ends the player’s turn. Players may draw back up to 4 or if they already have 4 may draw one card.

Location cards are limited for each ward. An important part of the game is using wildcards. Location cards become wild if the festival is in the matching ward, the active player has a store in the matching ward or the player discards 3 cards to use as 1 wildcard.

The game end is triggered when the last customer is drawn from the bag. Play continues so that each player has the same number of turns. 

The winner has the most points. Points are determined by sets of the different customers. Tokens with 2 icons count as 2 customers in determining sets. Department stars are used as wild tokens for customers. .Leftover customers count as 1 point.

The kaiju token is used in a variant of the game. Kaiju starts in Tokyo Bay and is moved by the active player to an adjacent ward. Any customers in that ward run away together to another adjacent ward and doing the move action customers are not allowed to pass through the ward where the Kaiju sits.

I like train games and Shinjuku did not disappoint. It’s a nice light to medium weight game. I’ve only played with 2 players, but it was still interesting. It’s a bit tactical as you have to make do with the cards you draw, so there is card luck involved but this can be mitigated by using the wild card ability. I would recommend using Kaiju in the two player game as your tracks are limited and you need the kaiju to scare customers from some of the wards on the outskirts towards the more densely populated center of the board. There is plenty of interaction in trying to build your tracks advantageously and also with moving customers. . The game moves along nicely and is fairly short.

Thoughts of Opinionated Gamers

Love it: Lorna