Build hiragana words on the board with the tiles in your hand, crossword-style, against the computer. Words read left to right or right to left, top to bottom or bottom to top.
Drag tiles from your hand onto the board (or tap a tile, then a square) to make a word, in one row or one column, joined to what is already there. Every run of two or more tiles you touch must be a word.
Select a tile and press ゛ Dakuten, ゜ Handakuten or Small to play か as が, は as ぱ, や as ゃ, つ as っ.
Press Done when your word is complete. Points are the tile values of every word you made or extended, plus the bonus number of each square you placed a tile on. A word that is not in the dictionary reduces 5 points, and you get a chance to try again. Done starts to glow once the tiles you have placed make a word.
Pass if you have nothing. Fresh tile set swaps your hand for new tiles and skips your turn. The game ends when both players pass in a row, or the bag is empty and a hand runs out. The highest score wins.
Playing alone, Hint puts down one tile to complete a common, everyday word. The first hint towards a word costs 3 points, the next 4, and so on. Once your tiles make a word, Hint says so and leaves it to you to press Done. The word then scores as usual, and the next word's first hint is 3 points again.
Only use single words. Expressions such as 気にする are not allowed, nor are katakana loanwords.
Words must be in their dictionary form. にる (似る) and あける (開ける) are fine, but conjugated forms such as にてる (似てる), あけて (開けて), たべた (食べた) or すきな (好きな) are not.
Computer only plays a game with two computers at the chosen level, with the speed configurable.
Leaderboard
Watch CrossTango play itself: two computers make kana words on the board at the level you choose, a turn at a time, at the speed you set. Every word either of them plays is shown with its kanji and meaning, which makes it a quiet way to pick up hiragana vocabulary.
Difficulty level
Your tilesComputer's tilesStart tileComputer's last move