Puz: Twilight Mahjongg [by Twilight Games]

Game: Twilight Mahjongg
Release: July 11, 2002
Genre: Puzzle
Developer: Twilight Games
System Requirments: Windows 95/98/Me/Nt/2000/XP, Pentium 2, 64 MB RAM, 6MB Video card with support for Direct X 3.0, 640x480 Hicolor mode (65,000+ colors)
Price: US $19.95

Some of my earliest memories of playing computer games includes playing Majhongg.  Majhongg is the ancient tile game where you match two tiles and remove them.  The game of course isn't quite so easy as that.  You must not only match tiles, but you must match tiles that are "free."  A free tile is a tile that is typically at the end of a row.

So those are the basics, I think most people have played Majhongg, so I'll spare you the details on how to play and instead give you some insight into this great version of the classic game.

I was really impressed with the scope of this game.  Instead of just rehashing Majhongg, Twilight has gone a long way to ensure that the game they released was very original and had a good deal of replay value.  Twilight Majhongg offers several modes of game play.  The first type of game play is "Simple match."  This is very much like traditional Majhongg, but it is easier to make a match as every tile is free to use unless it has a tile on top of it.  This is great for those who got frustrated trying to find that free tile and creates more of a speed-based game.  The second type of game play is "traditional."  I won't cover those rules again, I think most people know them.  The third type of game play is "Space Majhongg."  In this type of game play, the traditional rules are augmented with special space tiles.  These space tiles, blaster, light, teleport, and happy alien, help you to play the game and add some fun to the game.  For example, the blaster tile, when matched, will blast away a matched pair on the board for you.  I know if you have played Majhongg for a bit, then you have waited for the day to fire at the tiles!  For me, the most interesting of these power-up type tiles was the light.  When matched, it would show you the matching tile of any tile you clicked on if there was a match available.  Though short in duration, the light allows you the ability to make a quick few matches, which is especially useful when playing against another player...more on that later.  The fourth and final type of game is quite different.  It is really just a game of memory using the Majhongg tiles.  Clicking on a tile flips it over and you can then match it up with another by flipping another over...if you can remember where it was.

Twilight Majhongg also offer several different types of levels.  There are levels that can be passed by carefully selecting the correct tile matches each time.  This type of level is called a Replayable level.  Each time you start the level it places each tile in the exact same spot.  The other type of level is Random.  These levels randomly assign the tiles, so you may need to have the tiles shuffled if you run out of matches.  Thankfully shuffling doesn't negatively affect your game in any way.

Perhaps the most fun I had with Twilight Majhongg was the two-player mode.  There are not a lot of games that I can play with my wife, but this is definitely one of them.  The two-player mode lets you play any of the different game types and any of the levels, but while you are dueling with another person.  There are two types of two-player games.  In match-off you each have a time limit.  The goal is to make as many matches in the time limit as possible.  The person who makes the most matches wins.  The other type of two-player game is Time Challenge.  In Time Challenge, you must match a specific number of tiles.  The person who can match their tiles the fastest is the winner.  Both of these modes are set-up well to not be boring for the player playing with you.  Instead of giving one player a full turn, followed by the other player, the turns are broken up into parts.  The first player plays first and will have 1/3 of their time or need to make 1/3 of their matches.  Once that period has past the second player will do the same thing.  This swapping between players keeps the pressure on as you try to defeat your opponent, and keeps both players focused on the game at hand.

Twilight Majhongg is mostly set in space, so you will find that the boards, arrangements, navigation, and tiles all are space themed.  There are many different options for board layout and background.  The 15 different selectable tile sets make it continually interesting to play as the set you are playing with is nearly always new.

Graphics: 8
All the images in the game are very well done.  From the menus to the tiles, it is hard to find any real flaws...except one.  I had a lot of trouble figuring out the height of the tiles.  Since the tiles are mostly black based, I often found my eyes being tricked out.  This lead me to missing tiles that were available because I couldn't tell that they were up higher than other tiles.  I worked with all the tile sets, and the only ones I didn't really have this problem with were the robotic tiles.  I would recommend using those if you run into the same issue.

Sound: 8
The music and sounds in the game fit the mood well.  I thought the background music was well constructed, and was happy that it fit well into the background instead of overwhelming the person playing the game.

Game Play: 7
My knock on this category goes back to the graphics.  Since most of the tile sets I found hard to see, I had trouble playing the game at many times.  That can cause stress and frustration when playing against another player.  The robotic set helps that, but still it was a frustration while playing.

Options: 9
I've never run into a Mahjongg with so many options.  I've outlined most all of them above, but believe that the breadth of the options makes this game one of a kind for its type.  It would be very easy to play this game for a very long time due to the number of ways you can play the game.

Concept: 9
Twilight has a great knack of taking games and concepts that have been done before and doing them better then they have ever been done.  This is also true here.  The added ideas of game play make this game original to even the most experienced mahjongg players.

Fun: 8
As mentioned before, this is a great game to play with another person.  As a one-player it is fine as well, but as a two-player, this game really shines and is quite enjoyable.  If you have a significant other and they aren't really into games, try picking this one up.  I think you'll share some good bonding time.

Overall: 7
If you are at all a Majhongg fan, I'm sure you will be happy with this game.  Though there are hundreds of versions of Majhongg out there, few have been so innovative in presenting this type of concept as Twilight Majhongg. Added: February 18th 2003
Reviewer: The Mole
Score:
Related Link: Screenshots
Hits: 7787
Language: english