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6.5 extra fun
Starting your own Japanese garden design and landscaping business is tough. We all try, and most of us fail. I myself have been to Kyoto three times and even did temp work landscaping at a fancy pants golf course... and I still don't know how to throw together a Japanese garden.
Luckily Jessica doesn't have that problem, because she has a set of magic playing cards. Her grandparents are Japanese, and her mother used to tell her and her sister all about Japanese gardens. The images stuck in Jessica's head, and as an adult she decided to start her own landscaping business specializing in Japanese gardens. She put a few ads in a few magazines, and before long she and her magical solitaire deck and her sleepyhead cat, Mr. Tama, were on their way to meet their first customer.
Koi Solitaire, from Puzzle Lab, is a different sort of solitaire game. At each location, Jessica can see the shape of the garden-to-be, but she needs inspiration to work out the individual elements inside. To get that inspiration, she turns to her magical solitaire deck. Cards stream out of the deck slowly, following a trail beginning at Jessica and ending at a peacefully sleeping Mr. Tama. Cards must be chosen from the stream and placed into the forming garden. Card placement follows this simple rule: each card must be next to another either one rank higher or one rank lower than itself. (Suites don't matter.) For example, a four can only be placed next to a five or a three. As sections of the garden are completed, the elements of those areas pop into view. Rocks, sand, trees, lanterns, mini-shrines, ponds, etc. Place a card in every spot and the garden is complete.
However Jessica doesn't have all the time in the world to contemplate her garden design. Her cat Mr. Tama is a light sleeper and the cards are inching closer and closer to him by the second. If the streaming cards get too close, Jessica will begin to panic and fidget. That's understandable, because if the stream hits Mr. Tama, he'll wake up and the level will end. You wouldn't be able to design a Japanese garden either if a grumpy cat was yowling at you.
Jokers act as wildcards and can be placed anywhere. (If Mr. Tama is snoring, you can click on him and fat cat magic will change the nearest card into a joker. This only works when he's snoring. In cat psychology class I learned that a snoring cat is dreaming about mice.) Some cards in the stream are turned face down and you won't know what they are until you click on them. If you can place them right then and there, you'll get bonus points. Unneeded cards can only be discarded in two places: Jessica's satchel, or a bonus stack. Jessica's satchel isn't always open, but when it is, you can slip unneeded cards inside. Every now and then a level will have a bonus stack. Only cards succesively one rank higher than the next can be placed on this stack. If you can build this stack up to a king, you'll get lots of bonus points and a special attribute of the garden will be unlocked. For example, a waterfall will be turned on or carp will appear in a pool.
There are other special elements that sometimes appear in the stream of cards, such as a "time reverse" icon that can temporarily reverse the direction of the stream, a basket that can remove the four cards on either side of it, and a ninja hourglass that briefly halts the stream.
You can get extra points by arranging cards in "streets." Streets are sequences of cards (arranged horizontally) in which each successive card is one lower than the next, or one higher than the next. In some later levels you can only complete a garden by using streets.
The first ten levels or so of Koi Solitaire are extremely easy, and you probably won't find them challenging unless you're playing the game while delivering pizzas or practicing the cymbals. Jessica's magic solitaire deck usually fills the stream with cards needed to complete the garden. But that changes as the levels increase and she meets more demanding customers! You'll need to think on your feet and choose cards carefully and make good use of the basket, ninja hourglass, and time reverse icons - as well as Mr. Tama's jokers - if you want to succeed.
The graphics of Koi Solitaire aren't exactly inspired, but the gardens are well thought out and just as crowded and dense as some real Japanese gardens. (I myself prefer more open gardens like the grounds around Ginkakuji.) The most important elements - the playing cards - are easy to discern and you won't have any problems telling a queen from a king. As you might expect, the Japanese-themed music includes plenty of koto so this is the perfect game to leave running in the background of any koto parties you throw. Overall, Koi Solitaire is a fun diversion and probably the best solitaire game yet written for anyone studying Japanese gardens.
Koi means "carp" in Japanese. In Japan, carp are used for decoration in garden ponds and in moats surrounding castles. They can live to be over 100 years old. Catching and eating them is considered extremely rude!
