Basho Fury

Back in 2010 I played Joe Bryan's Basho Bash, now the same designer has released a new sumo wrestling game.. Available at Downey Games as a print & play eBook or a pre-printed purchase, Basho Fury is a fast paced replay game with over forty seasons available and an all-time greats set on the way.

With dozens of wrestler cards in each set it is possible to replay the top two tiers of professional sumo: the Makuuchi and the Juryo. Play is simple in that you take two cards, roll a pair of d6 dice, and see who wins. The favourite for each match-up is determined by each wrestler's Overall rating; in the case of a tie you then go to their letter grades (A-F) and highest ranking of that year.

Injuries and special upset events can occur on a roll of 66, which may lead to a change in performance for one or both wrestlers involved. So it is open that one individual may put in a career performance for the rest of that basho (tournament) and go into more matches as a favourite, and another man may miss a match and be unable to perform as well due to injury.

There are six bashos in a year: Hatsu, Haru, Natsu, Nagoya, Aki, Kyushu. I will be replaying all of these using the 1981 set for both the Makuuchi and Juryo. Each wrestler will have his overall rating listed to easily show how far apart the wrestlers should be in terms of ability. Not all cards are available so their rating will be down at 10 but still capable of winning their bouts.