ウォッチャ (WOCHA)

User summary
ウォッチャ (WOCHA) is a word game based on the traditional Japanese word game for children called しりとり (Shiritori) which literally means 尻 (buttock) 取り (grabbing). Essentially, you must make a new word (nouns only) using the last character of the previous. For example: ねこ > こま > まほう > うきよえ > えかき and so on. The game has some other simple rules to keep it controlled.

Wocha follows the pattern of Shiritori with picture cards. Each card has a complex picture that can be interpreted many ways, much as Dixit does. Players arrange ten image cards so that everyone can see them easily. Reveal one new image card from the deck to start the chain, then race to decide which one of the ten images can join the first revealed card, explaining how the two cards link together.

Each time a card is moved from the common area to link to the chain, a replacement card is drawn. Each player has four coloured cubes, and drops a cube onto a card when they make a successful link. It is allowed to revise the explanation of the chain by re-intepreting or re-using earlier cards. If a player can make a convincing argument, they can replace the previous player's cube with their own. The first player to dispose of their four cubes is the winner.

If a player makes a rather dubious interpretation on a card image, the game pauses and the players vote thumbs up or down whether to allow it. It is important to follow the rules of the word game. So in the example shown on the blog linked below, the start card was considered as たいよう (太陽 taiyou / sun) and the next card as うま (馬 uma / horse (there is a horse in the car!)), thus chaining with う. Now the current key letter would be ま from うま.

The new card drawn from the deck is a Matryoshka (マトリョーシカ). That would form a chain from うま. Then マトリョーシカ is linked by カッパ (kappa / a Yo-kai, folklore monster). Now that the key letter is パ, when you look back at that first "horse" card, that vehicle might be a パトカー (police car). This lets the player bump the blue cube off and place their own.

Publisher's summary

"Now that you mentioned it, it sure does look so." Associative skills and attentiveness is the key to this new picto-Shiritori game. The rules are simple.

Open 10 cards to form the community cards area, and give each player 4 colored tokens. Then draw 1 card from the deck, and open as the starting key card. Now, let the picture Shiritori begin!

From the 10 community cards, find a picture that can form a Shiritori-chain from the starting card. Found a good card? Call "WOCHA!"

The caller places the card next to the first card to form a chain, and places their token on the placed card. This newly placed card would be the new key. Now the players have to find a community card that can form a new Shiritori chain from the new key. Continue this procedure, and the one who gets rid of all of their tokens is the winner. But beware! The previously used cards may be reused to form a new chain. When done, the color token that was on the card would be removed and returned to the original player. So act quickly, and get rid of all your tokens before anyone attempts to return them back to you!

「言われてみれば、たしかに見える。」
連想力と発見力。新感覚の絵しりとりゲーム。
ウォッチャのルールはとってもカンタン。

全員が共通で使用する10枚のカードを机に並べ、各プレイヤーには4つのカラーコマが渡されます。
あとは、絵でしりとりをします。
山札から１枚カードをめくり、そのカードにチェーン（繋がり）出来そうなカードを場に並んだ10枚から探します。
見つけた人は「WOCHA!（ウォッチャ！）」と叫びましょう。
その人は先ほどのカードの右隣に、自分がキーワードを見つけたカードを置き、さらにその上に自分のカラーコマを置きます。
ゲームは先ほどチェーンされたカードの続きで引き続き行います。
これを繰り返し、手持ちのカラーコマ4つを誰よりも早くなくした人が勝利です。
ただし！すでに誰かが先ほどチェーンしたカードは本人以外が再度使用でき、もしそのカードを誰かが使用すると、先ほどカラーコマをせっかく置いていたのに使用された瞬間、元のプレイヤーのもとに戻ってきてしまうのです。
他のプレイヤーにカラーコマを戻される前に早く４つを手放してしまいましょう。