Hanafuda: Koi-Koi Review

I’m a sucker for two-player games, and Hanafuda: Koi-Koi is a reprint of a fast, elegant game that checks all my boxes. Pencil First Games teamed up with Vincent Dutrait to create a custom Hanafuda deck and a clean English adaptation of this ancient push-your-luck duel. Some games feel less like play and more like poetry. Hanafuda is one of them. What began as a secret game in 18th century Japan grew into a cultural treasure

Fun fact: Nintendo’s very first product was Hanafuda cards back in 1889. Over a century later, those flowers are still blooming on gaming tables, and now they’re blossoming again on Kickstarter. This time in a standard playing-card size rather than the traditional small cards

This is history, art, and nerve packed into 48 cards. The game is fast, addictive, and beautiful. I can’t wait for the final product!

How It Plays

The deck has 48 cards, four for each month. The cards create a panorama that could include animals, flowers, scrolls, or grasses. On your turn, you play a card from your hand and try to match it to one of the same month in the field to capture both. Then flip from the draw pile and see if you can score again. Captured cards can form sets called yaku. There are eleven different sets split into bright, scrolls, seeds, and dregs. The reference sheets do a good job at showing you the possible scoring cards on one side and the cards that correspond to each month on the other

Here’s the tension: once you score, you can call Shobu (end the round and bank points) or risk it with Koi-Koi. The game is played over twelve quick rounds and the person with the most points wins

Pros

📖 Excellent rulebook

🧠 Quick yet strategic

🎓 Easy  to learn and play

🗺️ Language independent

👜 Pocket-sized perfection

🌸 Steeped in history and culture 

😻 Push-your-luck tension that’s addicting

🃏 Standard playing-card size (easy to shuffle and handle)

🎨 Art by Vincent Dutrait (lots of games you might know!)

Considerations 

🎴 You will not be able to play this just once

📖 Takes a couple rounds to really get the scoring, but once you do, it’s addictive! 

👯‍♀️ It only plays at 1 or 2. I wonder if I get two decks, could I make it a four player game?

Who’s the Game For 🌼

• Gamers who want a timeless filler. Hanafuda is fast enough for a break and deep enough to play over, and over again!

• Players who love traditional games rooted in culture and history

• Two-player fans looking for a clever blend of set collection and risk

• Art lovers who’d treasure the deck even without gameplay

Conclusion

Hanafuda: Koi-Koi is fast, addictive, and beautiful. Push-your-luck tension, poetic strategy, and breathtaking cards make every match feel like a little duel through history. It’s not just a game, it’s an experience! The art, tradition, and timeless drama packed into a deck small enough to play anywhere.  I'm on a mission to only keep games we play in our collection, and this one checks all the boxes. Here's my rubric and my Geeklist with all the 2-player games I've reviewed