Mahjong by 1bsyl – the classic Chinese tile-matching game for Android
by Paul Wilks
Oct 17, 2012 8:33 AM –
Install
Mahjong by developer 1bsyl is, a little unsurprisingly, a Mahjong solitaire game available on Android. If you are a fan of the Chinese tile-matching game and want to play it on the go, this is worth trying out.
Price: Free
Tested on: HTC One X
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Sharp graphics!
- Responsive controls!
- 96 different boards!
- Ad-free!
- Multiple undo’s!
- Zoom!
Cons
- Instructions could be better. I had never played Mahjong before and had to go elsewhere to find instructions I could understand.
- Occasionally the tiles disappear. This requires you to exit the game and re-enter to resolve the issue.
Features:
Mahjong, for the completely uninitiated, is a game where you match tiles together. The original game is much like the card game rummy, where you have to match sets of cards together and play with four players. This Android game is actually Mahjong ‘Solitaire‘- a game you play on your own and must principally match two tiles together to remove them. Gameplay is complicated by the fact that tiles can only be removed if they can be slid out horizontally and do not have another tile covering them. This essentially makes the game more challenging and fun to play.
I heard of Mahjong before reviewing this game but never really understood the rules. The first thing I had to do was visit the game’s ‘Help’ section to learn the rules. I have to admit, however, that the rules in this particular game didn’t really help and I had to look online to find rules which I understood. Now, going back to read the in-game instructions it makes more sense, so I would suggest if you’ve forgotten the rules and need a reminder this is probably fine, but if you are a complete newbie, they don’t help very much. Perhaps a few visual cues which could demonstrate valid moves would be useful, rather than just text.
There are an whopping 96 different boards in the game in all manner if different shapes. While gameplay is going to be the same on every level, the assortment of levels keeps things relatively fresh. The graphics are simple and there isn’t much in the way of customisations- such as background colour or tile design, but the screens are sharp and vivid with tiles that are easy to identify. I did note an occasional glitch where the tiles disappeared but this was very rare and simply required me to exit the game and enter again.
I had never played Mahjong before and rather enjoyed it. It was challenging, fun and this Android version worked really well. While I think there could be better instructions, I enjoyed testing it out and I’m rather looking forward to playing another game soon.
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Mahjong – Gameplay view (1)
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Mahjong – Gameplay view (2)
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Mahjong – Gameplay view (3)
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Mahjong – Gameplay view (4)
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Mahjong – Just a few more tiles!
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Mahjong – Zoom out
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Mahjong – As discussed, the tiles occasionally disappear
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Mahjong – Win
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Mahjong – Menu
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Mahjong – New
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Mahjong – Various boards (1)
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Mahjong – Various boards (2)
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Mahjong – Various boards (3)
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Mahjong – Various boards (4)
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Mahjong – Help and rules
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Mahjong – Settings
Fun Factor:
Mahjong is simple tile-matching puzzle game that is made more complex by the differing levels of the tiles and the fact you can only match ‘free’ tiles together. If you’ve played the game before, you’ll pretty much know whether you find it fun or not. Having not played it before, but being a bit of a puzzle fan, I really liked it and- even though the first game took me ages(!) to complete, I found it lots of fun and very rewarding when the level was complete.
Addictive:
The Android version works really well and, once I had learned how, it was easy to play. The game automatically saves the point you get up to so it’s a great game to pick up and play in those spare moments. On that basis, while it’s not the most addictive game known to humankind, it’s kind of engrossing and simple to get into.
Graphics:
Compared with most games in the Google Play Store, the visuals here are relatively simplistic but they represent the tiles and the boards well and the game plays nicely. It would perhaps be a bonus in the future to see some simple customisation, but this isn’t a big deal.
Accelerometer, Vibration & Sound:
There is extremely little sound in the game, just the odd click between screens. It is a game, however, where you need to concentrate so little sound isn’t really a completely bad thing.