A portion of a Hanafuda Times interview with developer Hugo Smits...

HT: The graphics in this game are pretty bold, and not exactly clocking out the DSi in terms of graphical capability. I find them extremely charming. Is there a reason you decided on such a visual throwback?

HS: Ah, quite the contrary is true! Flipper runs on my true 3d voxel engine. A technology normally used for CAD scans on big medical computers. So believe me that it’s pushing all the DSi has to offer! The voxel engine allows us to dynamically change the landscape (i.e. blow up whatever you like, build things,etc).

The visual style is somewhat retro. Basically voxels are 3D cubes, so they come off as a little blocky. Besides, I really love old-skool games so I thought pixel-art would be a brilliant fit.