"Mahjong" - NES/Famicom

A.K.A. - 麻雀

More board games! I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for tuning in for 5 separate NES reviews. Wowee, I never thought I'd make it this far. This is more work than I've ever done in my entire life. I'd like to thank The Academy--

But really, it's a small milestone in what I hope will become something larger. I'm having fun writing these, and if literally anyone reads them, that's really something special to me.

Alright, enough of that.

----- Introduction -----

Oh god, here we go. Mahjong. There's only about 100,000 different versions of this in video-game form. Maybe if I explain the rules of Riichi Mahjong now I can just link back to this whenever another one comes up (and oh buddy, will it).

Riichi Mahjong is the Japanese variant of Mahjong, a game you play with a set of tiles that's a little bit like Rummy, if you've played it. You probably associate the name with solitaire Mahjong, where you pick up matching tiles. That's like regular card deck solitaire, a thing you do when you don't know how to play any real games, don't have any friends, you're bored, and you're 75.

Being old and completely alone has its up moments!

I won't get horrendously into detail here, but the point of Mahjong is to make a hand that contains certain tiles which create a valid hand. There's a list of valid hands you can check out here, which I usually keep open when playing Mahjong games because I can't remember but a few low point hand types, and that's not really how you want to play if you're playing to win.

You build these hands by drawing and discarding a singular tile at a time. Other players at the table with you, through various rules, are allowed to take tiles from your discards to form their own hands, or leave them be.

When you're one tile away from forming a complete hand, you have the option to perform a 'riichi,' which informs everyone you're one tile away and nets you some extra points when you complete the hand.

When you complete a hand, during riichi or not, you either get a tile from someone else to complete it ("ron"), or draw the tile yourself to complete it ("tsumo").

I think that's about all there is to say about that, so let's have a look at this basic-ass Mahjong game.

In-case you're having trouble reading this, it says '1983'.

----- Playthrough -----

Normally Mahjong is a 4-player game, but we'll have to save that for 4-Nin Uchi Mahjong, because right now all we get is a strange two player variant. There are some slight variations to the rules from regular riichi Mahjong, but the rules described above still apply, so if you understood that, you're with me.

I played against the 'easy' AI, and was mostly able to stand my ground. I lost the first couple of hands, and then came back and won in the end.

I know you don't know what you're looking at, but this is me getting anally ravaged.

There's not really a lot to say about this, like there wasn't to say about Gomoku Narabe Renju, it's just a video-game version of a board game. It seems pretty serviceable, with all the trappings of Mahjong as I know them from my small amount of experience with it.

Here's a picture of me "cheap-handing," which is what you do
when you want to get beat up by people who take the game seriously.

Overall, it was a fun little play, and while I was originally content to just snap a picture of me getting a good hand, I decided to go ahead and finish the whole round and try to win, and I actually managed to come out on-top. I didn't bankrupt the opponent's 30000 points, but I won by running out of hands with a higher score in the end.

Never talk to me or my yakuhai ever again.

----- Review -----

Intuitive Design: Horrible

How easy is it to intuitively understand the game?

I know it's a board-game, and you're expected to already know the rules, but the game really doesn't make any attempt to teach you what the heck you're doing, if you don't already know the rules. This is a common thread in Mahjong games, much like you usually don't find decent tutorials in Chess games. Still, it would be nice to be able to pick it up and play it even as a non-Mahjong player, wouldn't it? The limitations of the Famicom probably account for this oversight for the most part.

Satisfaction: Good

How rewarding does playing the game feel?

Playing Mahjong is fun, when you know how to play. The game gives you a satisfying little jingle when you land your ron or tsumo or whatever. If you don't know how to play, it's not very fun. Actually, when you don't know how to play anything, it's usually pretty stupid. Go figure.

Game Depth: Medium

How deep is the gameplay?

I mean, it's mahjong. Mahjong is inherently a little complicated, especially to a beginner. I don't know if the game developers really deserve any praise because they're not the ones who came up with the rules, it's just a board-game. But anyway, it's depthy enough to be fun to play repeatedly.

Sound Design: Minimal, Fine

How's the sound?

Bleeps and bloops as always. Most of the sounds from Gomoku Narabe Renju make a return here. There's not much to complain about and nothing to get excited about either.

Graphics: It's fine, dude

How's it look?

It's Mahjong. There are Mahjong tiles and a felt table in the background. What do you want?

Personal Chord: No

Does the game have that undefinable "something" for me?

I like Mahjong but this particular video-game is a fairly lackluster version of it. It's still fun, because it's still Mahjong, but let's wait until we get one that has cool exciting Riichi music and animations, and moe anime girls. Like MajSoul.

Play or Don't: Eeeehhhh

Should you waste your precious time?

Look, it's not really the greatest version of Mahjong. There's definitely better video-game incarnations. However, if you like Mahjong and just want to see it for yourself, you go right ahead. I had fun, after all. If you don't like Mahjong, why are you even reading this review? Don't play the game, dear God.

-----

I actually made one okay hand... that's new.