We Want Ulus 2 Ulus! 5 Reasons to Back the Hawai‘i Version of Apples to Apples

The local card game aims to raise $22,000 on Kickstarter by April 20.

April 16, 2019

Katrina Valcourt, Photos by Aaron K. Yoshino,

We had fun learning how to play Ulus 2 Ulus during our pau hana at Bethel Union.

The adjective: pilau (dirty, unclean, gross).

Your hand of cards: cuttlefish, Jean’s Warehouse, fut, Hawaiian Brian’s, ding-a-ling, 422-2222, Linda Lingle.

Pick a card!

What would you put down?

Ulus 2 Ulus, conceived in 2012 by Jolie Takazono and friends, is a local version of the popular card games Apples to Apples and Cards Against Humanity using pidgin and things that are funny to us in Hawai‘i (such as a centipede, described as pure evil and illustrated holding a “Heil Hitler” sign). You may have seen prototype decks at a few bars across the state, but Takazono wants to launch them on a larger scale. To do that, she launched a Kickstarter with a goal of $22,000, which includes producing the decks and all associated costs. Here are five reasons you should pledge now:

Good drinks, good food, good game.

1. Time is running out

Kickstarter is all or nothing. If the project doesn’t receive $22,000 in pledges by Saturday, April 20, Takazono doesn’t get to keep any of the money and has to go back to square one.

2. Support local

It’s great to see more local games popping up (Cards for 808) or having a resurgence (Hanafuda). Support this (somewhat) family-friendly game to keep your hard-earned bucks in Hawai‘i.

3. Brush up on your pidgin

See how your favorite pidgin words are defined (and spelled), such as haccum? fusstrating and olopop. Each deck includes 360 blue cards (nouns or phrases), 110 yellow cards (adjectives) and 10 blank cards for you to add your own. Cherreh!

4. Turn it into a drinking game

Every time someone mispronounces a word, doesn’t know its meaning or can’t use it in a sentence, take a drink. Play with your friends who aren’t from here for extra fun.

5. You’ll get rewarded

With each Kickstarter project, creators incentivize pledges by including rewards at different tiers. For every pledge of $25 or more, you’ll get your own deck (which is cheaper than what it will sell for when it comes out). See the full list of pledge rewards here.

kickstarter.com