KanaBoy

KanaBoy is a small, free tool for learning hiragana and katakana. It runs on a Game Boy.

That's pretty much it. You pick hiragana or katakana, it shows you a character, and you choose the right reading out of three. Ten questions and you're done - takes about a minute.

It keeps track of how you're getting on. Characters you haven't seen yet come up first, and anything you keep getting wrong keeps coming back until it sticks. There's nothing to set up or configure, just play and it sorts itself out.

What's in it

• Both scripts, 71 characters each - everything from あ to ん, plus the が, ざ, だ, ば and ぱ rows
• Ten questions a run
• Stats for every character: how often you've seen it, how often you got it right, how often you didn't
• Saves to the cartridge, so your progress is still there next time you switch it on

The wrong answers aren't random

The two decoys are usually characters that genuinely look alike - ぬ and め, シ and ツ, ソ and ン - or ones from the same row. It's a bit meaner than picking at random, but those are the pairs that actually trip people up.

Controls

• D-pad - move around
• A - pick / answer
• B - go back
• Select - swap script on the stats screen
• Start - wipe your progress

Running it

It's a .gb file. Any Game Boy emulator will open it, or you can drop it on a flash cart and use it on an actual Game Boy or an Analogue Pocket.

It's free

No ads, no unlocks, nothing to buy. If you get some use out of it and feel like leaving a tip, that's genuinely appreciated, but don't worry about it. Go learn some kana.

— viruztt