Hanafuda Koi-Koi Collection (花札こいこいコレクション) is an iOS and Android game for playing Koi-Koi. It is published in 2021 by CHAOS Inc., a game studio from Japan. The game is free to play, and available in both English and Japanese.
The main distinguishing feature of this app is its “life” system, where instead of a set amount of rounds, players try to survive as long as possible against the computer opponent. For more longevity, the game has 116 achievements, a Collection system with 134 unlockable artworks, and leaderboards. The game is single-player only.
The game closely follows rules from Nintendo’s Japanese Koi-Koi pamphlet. See the Koi-Koi Rules section below for more details.
The app can only be played in landscape (horizontal) orientation. There is no in-game option for changing the interface language, so it can only by changed by changing the system language.
Cards are not automatically ordered by suit.
The game highlights which cards in your hand match with cards in the field. It also shows how many Chaff, Ribbon and Animal cards each player has, an what yaku they are close to getting. (These hints can be turned off in the game settings, with the “Assist” and “Yaku hint” options respectively.)
All cards remain visible when deciding whether to call Koi-Koi. (The buttons and text on the see-through Koi-Koi window can sometimes partially obscure cards, but they always remain recognizable.)
At the end of each round, the opponent’s hand cards and the top two cards from the deck are revealed, to satisfy curious players.
Players start with 25 life points. Each time you play a card from your hand, you lose one life point. If you win a round, the points you scored are added to both your life points and your total score. If the computer wins, its score is subtracted from your life points. It’s game over when you have 0 life at the end of a round, after scoring.
If your life reaches 0 during a round, you can continue playing at least until the end of the current round, and can continue to the next round if you score at least one point.
When you go game over, your final score is ranked based on how well you did. Each rank unlocks a traditional Japanese painting or woodblock print of the same rank for your Collection.
0-9 points is unranked, and does not unlock a new artwork.
In total there are 60 B-rank artworks, 36 A-rank artworks, and 38 S-rank artworks you can unlock.
The game closely follows rules from Nintendo’s Japanese Koi-Koi pamphlet. This means:
Additionally, Blue Ribbons and Poetry Ribbons stack normally with Ribbons yaku, and likewise, Boar-Deer-Butterflies stacks with the regular Animals yaku. The Blue and Poetry Ribbons yaku replaces the Blue Ribbons yaku and the Poetry Ribbons yaku, but still stacks with the regular Ribbons yaku.[1] (This is all just like in Nintendo’s Clubhouse Games.)
Example: If you have 3 Blue Ribbons and 3 assorted Ribbon cards, you score 5 + 3 points for Blue Ribbons and 1 + 1 points for Ribbons, for a total of 10 points (before multipliers).
This is more than in some other rulesets, where these cards would be worth 7 or 8 points total. (Either Blue Ribbons invalidates Ribbons, scoring only 5 + 3 for Blue Ribbons, or you get a fixed 5 or 6 points for Blue Ribbons plus 1 + 1 for Ribbons.)
The game shows ads before and after matches. At the end of a match, players can choose to watch an ad to double their rewards. A small banner ad is shown on the main menu screen, and sometimes on the opponent’s hand cards during play.
There is no way to spend money to remove ads. The game can be played offline, so ads can be avoided by turning off the device’s internet connection before opening the app.
An overview and comparison of the hanafuda terminology used in the game.
| In-game Japanese | In-game English | Fuda Wiki term |
|---|---|---|
| 親 (oya) | dealer / oya | dealer |
| 役 (yaku) | yaku | (same) |
| こいこい (koi-koi) | Koi-Koi | (same) |
| あがり (agari) | Finish | shōbu |
| あがる (agaru) | Finish | call shōbu |
¶ Card terms |
||
| カス札 (kasu fuda) | chaffs card chaff |
Chaff |
| 短冊札 (tanzaku fuda) | poetry slips card slip |
Ribbon |
| タネ札 (tane fuda) | animals card animal |
Animal |
| 光札 (hikari fuda) | light | Bright |
¶ Yaku names |
||
| カス (kasu) | Chaffs | Chaff |
| タン (tan) | Slips | Ribbons |
| タネ (tane) | Animals | (same) |
| 青短 (aotan) | Blue Slips | Blue Ribbons |
| 赤短 (akatan) | Red Slips | Poetry Ribbons |
| 赤短・青短 (akatan-aotan) | Red&Blue Slips | Poetry+Blue Ribbons |
| 猪鹿蝶 (ino-shika-chō) | Boar-Deer-Butterfly | (same) |
| 月見で一杯 (tsukimi de ippai) |
Moon Viewing | Moon Viewing Sake |
| 花見で一杯 (hanami de ippai) |
Blossom Viewing | Flower Viewing Sake |
| 三光 (sankō) | Three Light | Three Brights |
| 雨四光 (ame shikō) | Rainy Four Lights | Rainy Four Brights |
| 四光 (shikō) | Four Lights | Four Brights |
| 五光 (gokō) | Five Lights | Five Brights |
| 手四 (teshi) | Four Hands | Four of a Kind |
| くっつき (kuttsuki) | Sticky | Four Pairs |
Note: The rules description calls the Viewing yakus “Tukimi-zake and Hanami-zake” (untranslated) instead of “Moon Viewing and Blossom Viewing”.
