"4 Nin Uchi Mahjong" - NES/Famicom

AKA - 4人打ち麻雀

----- Introduction -----

Oh boy! Another mahjong game!

I actually would have sighed and been annoyed to have to review this back in the day, but that's when I was weak, and lame. Shouts out to my friend and streamer LoveKnife (who's Twitch you can find in this very sidebar! Go support him!) for getting me into mahjong and teaching me how to play in the first place. He's much better than I'll ever be, and he's also a really great guy.

So, now I know better. Also, after reviewing Mahjong, which features a weird two player variant of mahjong, we can now be excited to play four person mahjong, the regular game. Just like Japanese people can't get enough of this board game, so too can we experience this bliss.

Mahjong has a very lovable personality.
I would like to one day have children with mahjong.

As usual with Japanese games, let me attempt to upset someone who actually knows Japanese by translating it badly:

In pretty much all the cases I know, the kanji 人 (ji, nin) stands for "person". So 4人 ought to be quickly recognizable as "4 person" (by the way, it's (probably) "yon-nin," not "four-nin," but you can say the one that makes you giggle if you like). 

打ち (uchi) can mean a lot of things, but its most basic definition (I think) is to "strike," or "pound" (or to bang/beat/punch/slap/clap/hit. . .). I think in this case it's just meant to be an enhancing adjective to sound like the game's really intense (like you're slapping down tiles).

So, I'm going to tentatively translate this title for you as:

"Four Person Striking Mahjong"

I don't know how correct that actually is, feel free to correct me in the comments. My Japanese is weak. Much like my mahjong game. More on that in twenty seconds.

Okay, let me make sure I'm reading this right... time to play some 4 Dick Uchi Mahjong.

----- Playing the Game -----

At the first menu, the game gives you a choice between 良い断なし and 良い断あり, and I have literally no idea what this means. It literally seems to mean that you have a choice between "there isn't a good decision," or "there is a good decision."

I have a hunch it is some mahjong rule I'm not familiar with, or maybe easy/hard mode-- but I chose "there is a good decision," because I didn't want anymore negativity in my life.

So, Hudson, you're saying I should pay my student loans with gambling? Wait a minute-- this is the no good decision mode!

If you're not familiar with the rules of mahjong, I outlined them very briefly in my Mahjong review, but essentially you're aiming to form a hand that is valid to "go out" on, and score points. The game was giving me pure trash for the first few rounds, but eventually I started to get some more decent tiles and was able to form one or two good hands.

I would also painedly submit that perhaps I am the one who is trash and not my draws, but I'd like to wait until someone calls me out on it first, if that's okay.

Judge not the other man's discard pile until thou judgeth thine own.

Most of the actual rules of riichi mahjong are in tact here, where some were missing in Mahjong. For instance, dora tiles now work like they're supposed to, and round/seat winds are all here and accounted for.

The only other interesting thing that happened is at one point I got a "chin itsu" yaku, which means that my hand was entirely made of one suit (in this case, the pin suit). That's worth 5 han, which is, like, pretty good.

I put myself in last place just to lull you into a false sense of security-- now prepare for a hand of moderate value!

At one point one of the CPU players (the top one) went into negative points, which in a normal game would end the match in the favor of whomever was in the lead. That didn't happen, and at that point I became suspicious that perhaps the "good choice" thing was a reference to this rule. I didn't try another game to see if that was the case, though I suppose I could have.

I came in second. My blog's undefeated mahjong status lasted through one game review.

----- Review -----

Innovation: Yes...?

Does the game show anything not yet seen on this system/ever before?

It's the first representation on the NES of regular, four person mahjong-- that gives it an edge over Mahjong... but other than that, it's still just mahjong.

Spitting Rage: Conditional

Does the game make you want to tear your own organs out of your body?

How seriously do you take mahjong? Because if you take it seriously, mahjong will always make you furious eventually. She is a harsh mistress.

Intuitive Design: Terrible

How easy is it to intuitively understand the game?

Much like Mahjong, there's no guidance here on how to play the game if you don't already know. You will be awash in a sea of weird words you don't understand and tiles you don't know the significance of. So come prepared.

Satisfying Gameplay: Sure

How rewarding does playing the game feel?

Like I said in the other review, mahjong is always pretty fun, and satisfying when you make a good hand. The game itself doesn't really do anything to enhance the experience of playing mahjong, but it's a serviceable take.

Game Depth: Chest deep

How deep/long is the game?

Mahjong is complicated. The game doesn't do anything that makes it more complicated, but mahjong by itself is pretty complicated.

Sound Design: Minimal, So-so

How's the sound?

It's just bleeps, bloops, and ksshes. At this point I'm starting to expect more from the Famicom games as a result of what we've already seen, with Chip Tanaka's work like in Donkey Kong 3. Some music or something would definitely be nice.

Graphics: Fine

How's it look?

Everything is a little crowded on the screen, but you can see everything you need to see and it all looks serviceable enough to recognize.

Personal Chord: Nah

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

I like playing mahjong but this game doesn't do anything to push it further towards my aesthetic or style. It's just a mahjong game.

Play or Don't: Up to you

Should you waste your precious time?

This is more fun than Mahjong was, but I guarantee there are better ways to play mahjong. It's not like you need to play this one just to play mahjong. You can play online right now on MajSoul, or learn with someone else. So if you choose not to play 4-nin Uchi Mahjong, nobody will criticize you; I'm fairly certain.

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