GREE's [AKB48 Stage Fighter] Game!

As AKB48 continues their quest to take over the world, they are now being featured in a new game from GREE.  [AKB48 Stage Fighter] is a social game intended to be played on feature phones.

The game is a competition to hold the center position in AKB48, with gameplay format being a card battle.  Players duel it out using game cards featuring AKB48 members.  For the initial release, 250 different cards are planned, with more new cards to be released at a later date.

Set in some year 20XX in a post-apocalyptic world, the 48 members are thrown into a distorted spacetime and now must struggle to come out on top in an epic "Ken" game (janken is a subset of this type of hand-game).  The player's mission is to collect cards and secret items in order to assemble a deck for battling.

A typical mission involves battling another user in order to snatch away their "Center Aura" and thereby increase your own abilities towards taking the "Center Position."  In order to complete the collection of secret items, the player must also collect secret materials.  The social game aspect of this comes into play where each player must designate their "Oshimen," through which they can interact with other players of the game.

In addition, a special [Center Contest Battle] event to begin immediately after release will allow players to enter in card battles in order to win special promotional items featuring various AKB48 members.

The game was released 25 October 2011, As an additional bonus, between 11:00 to 23:59 on the release date, players were able to get a limited edition card.

I've never played much card battle games, so this sounds like Pokemon but with AKB48 girls instead...  I also find it hilarious that the "battle" involved here is basically janken (despite their attempt to be vague about it).  Now you too can participate in AKB48 janken tournaments!  The sample cards look super cute and all kirakira, but my phone wouldn't support this game anyways.  But for those with real technology, you may want to check this out!

Find out more on the GREE website!