Hold to rise, tilt to steer
Press and hold to fly up; the chevrons show the way. Tilt to steer: you're flying the kite and its rope at once, banking through the flock. Need to dodge? Yank: a quick sideways flick whips the kite out of harm's way.
- 1 · FlyHold the fly control and the kite climbs. Let go and it eases off: short holds for small hops, long holds to soar.
- 2 · TiltLean your phone or Deck (or use the D-pad / A D) to steer the kite and shape the rope. Small corrections beat big swings.
- 3 · YankFlick sideways to snap the kite left or right: your dodge move. Drag down to dip under trouble.
- 4 · SurviveHearts are your lives. Birds and toys knock one off; at zero the kite breaks. Darumas patch you up.
Touch, keys or pad: the kite doesn't mind
On phones and tablets: tap & hold anywhere to fly, tilt to steer, drag to pull the kite sideways or down.
Tilt to steer: the good stuff 🎐
Yakko Tako reads the gyroscope: lean your phone, tablet or Steam Deck and the kite banks with you, like holding a real string in the wind. It's the nicest way to play. On the Deck it works out of the box (toggle it with the GYRO switch in Settings); buttons and keys below always work too.
Below, keyboard keys are shown as keycaps like C, and controller buttons as 🎮 Y; they mirror each other:
Everything up there wants your hearts
Birds
The regular crowd. Each touch costs a heart. They come in waves and get denser the higher you climb; weave, don't rush.
Squids & shuriken
Squids latch onto the kite and weigh it down; shake them by moving. Shuriken sting once, but after bouncing off you they clear birds. Use the insult.
Tako, the octopus
The boss. He blocks the way, tracks your kite and shoves you down if you touch him; he never kills. And beware: at certain heights he sneaks up from behind just to catch you. Bounce festival pellets off him or slip past above; dodging him pays gifts.
Temari streaks
When the sky goes quiet, strings of temari balls come tumbling from above. Thread through all of them untouched and you earn a tailwind, and the same jingle Tako hates.
Updrafts 🌸
Pink petals streaming up. Let go of the fly control and ride it; an idle kite gets carried far higher than a working one.
Downdrafts 🌸
Petals streaming down. You cannot power through one; flying into it your climb almost dies. Steer sideways and go around.
Catch a lucky god, keep it in the drawer
Daruma powerups drift through the sky. Some act the moment you touch them; the ones you stash appear in the daruma drawer: open it (keyboard C · controller 🎮 Y), cycle it (V · 🎮 B), and deploy (X on either) when the moment is right.
HOTEI布袋
Restores you to 10 lives, and adds one more if you're already full.
JUROJIN寿老人
Adds 6 lives on the spot.
BISHAMONTEN毘沙門天
Invulnerable for 10 seconds. Fly straight through the flock.
FUKUROKUJU福禄寿
Auto-flies you upward for 10 seconds. Enjoy the view.
BENZAITEN弁財天
Invisible for 10 seconds: birds and temari pass right through you.
DAIKOKUTEN大黒天
Strengthens your string's tension resistance for 10 seconds. Pull harder, longer.
EBISU恵比寿
Doubles that string blessing: 10 seconds of nearly snap-proof pulling.
Three quick pulls and the kite sees red
Pull the string three times in fast succession and the kite flies into a brief rage: a ring bursts around it and for a couple of seconds nothing can hurt you. It's an emergency cord, not a lifestyle: once it fades, it needs twice as long again before it can trigger.
Fly high, spend at the festival stall
Every flight earns gifts: from height and from grace (dodged bosses, clean streaks). They pile up in your wallet across rounds; the counter at the top-left always shows what you own. Spend them at the festival stall, Ennichi on the main menu, where you pick your powerup darumas, kites, worlds and game modes, or on a revive when a run is too good to let die.
The stall stocks at most ten darumas at a time: up to 10 bought powerups may sit unspent in your drawer; the N/10 counter on the stall's top bar shows where you stand. At 10/10 the stall politely refuses; fly and use your darumas to make room for more. Gifts you can't spend yet keep safely in the wallet.
Batsu · Back to Edo · Shinkai
Three worlds, each one crafted for the art of yakkodako kite flying:
- Batsu 罰: the first sky. Blue heavens over a paper sea: learn the wind here among the birds, the toys and Tako himself.
- Back to Edo: an ukiyo-e sky of old Japan. Woodblock clouds and festival colours; the classic backdrop the yakkodako was born under.
- Shinkai 深海: the deep sea, and everything turns upside down: the world flips, and so do your pulls. Dive deep instead of climbing high.
Unlock and switch worlds at the Ennichi.
Pick your challenge
- Play: the classic climb. How high can one kite go before the sky wins?
- Super Easy: the training sky. Same climb, forgiving obstacles. Pick the mode on the PLAY card, learn the string, then graduate.
- Time Trial: reach goal heights against the clock; goals spread further apart the higher you get.
Ennichi (縁日) on the main menu isn't a mode; it's the festival stall itself: the store where you pick your powerup darumas, choose your kite, unlock worlds and switch game modes, and where your gifts get spent.
From players who fell a lot
- Short pulls climb almost as fast as long ones and never snap the string.
- When a downdraft's petals appear, stop fighting; one sideways pull saves more height than ten upward ones.
- Save BISHAMONTEN for bird walls, BENZAITEN for temari streaks.
- Tako gives up once you're well above him. Height is the whole argument.
- Gifts are worthless in the sky. If a great run is about to end, a revive is usually cheaper than pride.