Tanigawa Kouji no Shougi Shinan 3 is one of those old-school NES shogi games that’ll either make you feel like a tactical genius or completely lost—depending on how well you know Japanese. The menus are all in kanji, and if you’re not familiar with shogi notation, good luck figuring out which piece is which at first glance.

That said, if you stick with it (or cheat with a translation guide), there’s actually a solid shogi tutor buried in here. The AI starts off forgiving, letting you get used to moving pieces before ramping up. I kept accidentally dropping my king into danger early on, but after a few brutal losses, I started seeing traps before they happened. The game even throws in some preset puzzles to teach specific tactics, which helped more than I expected.

Not gonna lie, it’s niche as hell, but if you’re into shogi and don’t mind some retro jank, it’s a weirdly satisfying time capsule.