Down the rabbit hole of Reversi/Othello
My modern day board game routine of things like theLord of the Ringscard game,ScytheandStar Trek Ascendancydon’t make much room for classics likeReversi, but this incredibly cuteSplatoon-themed board would change my mind if someone put it on the table.
Yep, Max Games is headlining an official version ofSplatoon 2Reversi, complete with an ink playing board and squids (green and pink in lieu of the traditional black and white pieces). It’ll arrive later this month for 1000 yen, which is just under 10 bucks. In other words, it’s a great gift if you’re able to pick it up in Japan or get a good import deal on it.
The whole “is it Reversi or Othello” question led me down a massive hole that I didn’t recover from for nearly an hour. It’s one of those “historians don’t really know who actually made the original” types of deals, and folks still argue to this day regarding the variations between the two. Most westerners probably know it as “Othello,” especially when you factor in that popular gaming company Mattel trademarked the name.
The name is still widely popular in Japan however, asOthellowas even normalized by a man named Goro Hasegawa and Nintendo developed a handheld version ofOthellobefore the NES era. Small nuances between the two games mostly boil down to tiny alterations, like starting with a blank board inReversias opposed to the traditional four disks in the middle withOthello.
Yet, the above image of theSplatoon 2Reversi shows four default tiles in the middle in theOthellostyle (the version most people play today), hence this exploration. So why isn’t it using theOthelloname?Capitalism. The name “Reversi” is simply easier to claim from a monetary standpoint, despite the fact thatOthellohas become more popular.
Amid all this mess, my favorite version ofReverthello(this is a parody, don’t @ me, Mattel lawyers) isEhrgeiz’s fighting game version of it. Hot damnEhrgeizcould use an HD remake or re-release (no one will go through the effort of a remaster for this extremely niche thing only I, and probably one commenter here love). I still bust out my copy to playthat fully-fledged RPGfrom time to time.
