Mushiking

My son is crazy about Mushiking, a Card + Animation game developed by SEGA. SEGA set up hundreds of game machines / kiosks in mostly every toy-floor of department store in Taiwan, Japan and Singapore. Kids between 6~12 are all so into this game. Mushiking is basically a paper-scissor-stone game, with fighters (the beetles) loaded different level of fighting skills. So there are cards for beetles, and cards for skills. Kids pay for the cards, printed with bar-code to represent different types of beetles and skills. The cards are also becoming collectible / trad-able among kids, and plays an important part in their small social circles. As a parent, although I had exactly same life experience 20 years ago, I don't want my kid to spend too much time and too much money on this but as a marketer, I can't help applausing for SEGA.