The Asian Power Hour

Beasts
Bases
Boosts (Spells, sorry, I had to keep running with the alliteration~)

These are some Beast cards:

The elements, Water, Wind, and Fire, play out basically like Paper-Rock-Scissors, and true to that, there is a Jankenpon match every round to determine attack and spell effectiveness.

Juushinden uses a portable RFID card reader which seems to be similar a stripped down version of Sangokushi Taisen's ID reader that quickly identifies cards, but they have to be face down. I took apart a few cards but I wasn't able to identify with my amateur eye what exactly informs the reader to what card is being scanned. The scanning itself is fast and efficient. The only other portable CCG game on the market currently (not counting the old old barcode battler system and the failed Nintendo e-Reader) is Sega's Love and Berry which uses a very simple barcode system ala CARDASS. The one kicker is that the arcade Love and Berry cards are usable for the portable system too, very cool, very smart.

This is a front view of the reader:

Thinking ahead, Konami made a very smart move allowing two players the ability to duel on one DS with just one reader, or through Wi-Fi if they both have a reader and a deck.

Side view:

This is how a card is scanned:

This system is basically a CCG gamers wet dream as it allows for a high-impact visual representation of the duels that are taking place as they play. Back when I played Magic:The Gathering hardcore, I had always dreamed about some kind of device like this. I tell you, kids and their toys these days. Here's the Japanese TV spot for the game, it's simple and gets to the point:

While Juushinden is based on an original IP at the moment, there is already an expansion based on a older popular manga/anime/game IP in place, JoJo's Bizzare Adventure. Judging by the throngs of kiddies I saw around demo units day after day, this seems like a pretty solid hit. Now, if you put in a WWII theme and send it to the US or a Three Kingdoms theme and sell it to the rest of Asia there could be some serious money here. The main point is that the Magic Reader will be compatible with future games so all players will need to invest in for future IP will be the game cart and cards of their choice. I picked up a copy and three theme decks if anyone is interested in trying this out more in-depth back at or around USC just leave a message.