Mahjong Master

The Good
Very good conversion of Mahjong

The Bad
Not that many features.

The Bottom Line
In English speaking countries, Mahjong is known as a solitaire tile matching game. This simple game is actually just one of many variants of Mahjong, with traditonal Mahjong being a 4 player (no more, no less) game. This is Japanese-only game so I did read up a bit on how to play this style of Mahjong. I was still confused to begin with, but got the hang of it.

The object of Mahjong is a game where you’re trying to create sets (three/four of a king or a straight of three/four) in your hand, playing a “Mahjong” when complete (there’s usually a single pair in a Mahjong, other sets are bigger). Each turn, you pick a tile to discard and get a new one. As others play tiles, you have the opportunity to match them up with two more of your tiles – thankfully, Mahjong Master shows you when these are available.

In Mahjong Master, you join “South End” club and get introduced to the players there, most of them casual players of Mahjong. You can play individual matches or take part in tournaments as you move up the leagues, meeting more dedicated players as you progress. The characters also comment on actions in the matches, making it seem a bit more personal. I manged to win a tournament, although for true “completion”, you need to get to the top league and win tournaments for 12 months in a row.

There are a lot of options available that I didn’t mess with, and I also struggled with getting straights in one of the suits (others are self explanatory, but one is Japanese characters). There is also a quiz where you can answer questions about Mahjong, so there are quite a few options for fans of the game.

Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics has this flavour of Mahjong under the name “Riichi Mahjong”, which is a bit easier to understand with tutorials and numbering on the tiles.