Play Tsume Shougi : Mondai Online

Tsume Shougi: Mondai was a Game Boy release from around 1990, published by Seta. It arrived during a period when the handheld was becoming a home for serious, single-player puzzles, offering a dedicated space for shogi problems away from the arcades and home consoles that dominated the genre. This wasn't a game trying to be flashy; it was a straightforward tool for practice, fitting right in with the portable's library of thoughtful, portable challenges.

You don't control a character, but instead work through a series of pre-arranged shogi puzzles, or tsume problems. Your objective in each puzzle is to find the correct sequence of moves to checkmate the opponent's king, with every move being a forced check. The game presents these problems one by one, and you input your moves directly on the board displayed on the screen. A key mechanic is the ability to take back moves, which is essential for experimenting with different lines of attack without penalty. The pacing is methodical, and the difficulty ramps up significantly, demanding deep calculation and foresight. Solving a particularly tough problem gives a quiet, definite satisfaction.