The Handheld Mahjong Thread

[hanafuda]

Anyone play?

I'm pretty hooked at the moment. Still learning, but it is eating up a lot of my gaming time considering the PS1 game I have on my PSP gets a fair bit of play, and the version in Yakuza 3 is pretty good too.

Anyway, I doubt anyone here plays, but I'm thinking of picking up this Konami title on PSP later this month when it comes out on budget.

http://www.konami.jp/products/mfc_zenkoku_psp_best/

Anyone know it?

 

[Kiken]

Anyone play?

I'm pretty hooked at the moment. Still learning, but it is eating up a lot of my gaming time considering the PS1 game I have on my PSP gets a fair bit of play, and the version in Yakuza 3 is pretty good too.

Anyway, I doubt anyone here plays, but I'm thinking of picking up this Konami title on PSP later this month when it comes out on budget.

http://www.konami.jp/products/mfc_zenkoku_psp_best/

Anyone know it?

If you really enjoy mah-jong, I highly recommend the Suchie Pai series (SFC, Saturn, PS1, DC, DS, PSP and PS2). Suchie Pai III, specifically, is available on the PSP.

 

[hanafuda]

Thanks.

Does the PSP game have ad hoc mode?

The PS1 title I'm playing at the moment (Ide Yousuke's Mahjong something or other) has been great for learning as there is a very comprehensive study mode, but I get the distinct impression the CPU is a cheating bastard.

 

[drombat]

This was not supposed to be a general handheld mahjong thread, but maybe it could be.

I can recommend Suchie-Pai 3. The best Gal-mahjong series IMO. However, these gal titles are one on one, meaning a bit of the "mahjong experience" is lost. You get a lot of cute gals though.

I have heard great things about MFC, and I'm thinking of picking it up. Apparently it's a mini of a very popular arcade series. There are stories of very slow wi-fi play.

For the DS, I recently bought Gundam mahjong +Z, and it's great so far. I like the games where you play for something more than ranking and points. In this game, you play mainly to unlock stuff like 160+ Gundams. Four player wi-fi, but I haven't got online with it yet. Need to figure it all out first.

Anyone know if the Super real series is dead? I'm hoping Seta will bring it to the current handhelds Cero D-style!

 

[barf]

MFC is imho the best Ma-jan experience. It was in my 1st PSP purchase (i don't have the whole country edition though)

Sure you don't fight anime girls, you don't have fancy graphics (besides very lisible tiles), but the AI is great and it is the 4p deal. I ll stick with it, even if i am not against a 1 on 1 from time to time.

 

[hanafuda]

MFC is imho the best Ma-jan experience. It was in my 1st PSP purchase (i don't have the whole country edition though)

Sure you don't fight anime girls, you don't have fancy graphics (besides very lisible tiles), but the AI is great and it is the 4p deal. I ll stick with it, even if i am not against a 1 on 1 from time to time.

Thanks.

Does it have ad-hoc play? If I get it, I want to get 2 copies so I can play against my wife and 2 CPU opponents.

Also, I'll change the title of this thread to give a bit more scope. I didn't expect anyone here would be into the game...

 

[drombat]

I can now assure everyone that Gundam mahjong +Z for the DS is a great game. Nicely balanced difficulty which ramps up quite high as you progress. Many different story lines to play through. A great many robots to win by betting already won robots during matches. Great risk reward thing, since you have to put nice robots on the line to win nice robots. Very nice graphics and easily readable tiles. Some good music and sounds too.

Can anyone tell me a little about Doko demo mahjong for the NGPC? I'm thinking I need to get it.

 

[bokmeow]

I want to pick up the Yakuman DS that supports WFC play, but have not come across one at a nice to buy price yet... I'm not as hot for 1-on-1 CPU battle if it doesn't have randomizer... the last effort Super Real Mahjong Reunion on the GBA was ruined by the same tiles you always received, depending upon the difficulty setting... where is the challenge, the fun? Sigh.

 

[Poison Sama]

The first, and currently the only, handheld mahjong game I've played so far is "Shoubushi Densetsu Tetsuya - Yomigaeru Densetsu" for GBA. This is also the game that got me into mahjong. Not sure how well it holds up to other handheld mahjong games, but I found it quite fun. It's more than just a standard mahjong game, since there's a story and you can wander around town, and you eventually learn this technique that allows you to start with certain winning hands (takes the form of a minigame before a match starts, in which you have to press certain button sequences in a short amount of time).

However, best digital mahjong game by default is the one included with the PC ero-game "Happiness! Re:Lucks". Why? Because it has Jun Watarase. Therefore, no contest.

 

[drombat]

I want to pick up the Yakuman DS that supports WFC play, but have not come across one at a nice to buy price yet... I'm not as hot for 1-on-1 CPU battle if it doesn't have randomizer... the last effort Super Real Mahjong Reunion on the GBA was ruined by the same tiles you always received, depending upon the difficulty setting... where is the challenge, the fun? Sigh.

In the 1 on 1 games, you don't play through the whole tileset, so it has to be made so it is likely to get tiles you need if you play your hand correctly. Otherwise, you could noten tens of rounds in a row and that would be even less video mahjong fun. There are of course 1 on 1 games that are better than the GBA Super real, but they never give you the full mahjong experience. Playing 1 on 1 for the laidback mahjong and the prizes, and four player for the full mahjong is what I do. Gundam +Z for the DS combines full mahjong and prizes in a neat way, though.

I'm also looking for Yakuman DS, by the way. Hook me up if you find it stocked?

 

[GunstarHero]

Is Mah Jong the same as Shanghai? This is the game I have on LYNX that I've been playing. Very good version here: (click link for game description)

http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=1883

 

[drombat]

Shanghai uses mahjong tiles. The similarities end there.

Mahjong is kind of like a card game. You collect suites and triples and such. It's a very deep game with tons of tactics involved. You should try it out.

 

[qube]

Shanghai uses mahjong tiles. The similarities end there.

Mahjong is kind of like a card game. You collect suites and triples and such. It's a very deep game with tons of tactics involved. You should try it out.

Are there any English handheld versions available though?

 

[drombat]

I don't think there any on any console, sadly. So you kind of have to have a firm grasp of the rules and terms and such in order to play them successfully.

There is a great english game for PC called Four winds mahjong. I don't know if there is a tutorial in it, but it must be easier to get into it that way. It lets you choose between rulesets, and Riichi is one of them.

 

[SouthtownKid]

My favorite mahjong game is Kabuki Reach Taiyo Mahjong for Superfamicom (which I now play on my PSP, making it eligible for the thread).

It's pretty close to a real game in that you can wander around a little town area, go into different mahjong parlors and join games with different variations in terms. You play against 3 CPU characters, no one-one-one idiocy, no cutesy anime bullshit, no stripping nonsense, just straight-up mahjong. The computer lets you know when you can chi, pon, or kan, which is very helpful to beginners.

 

[hanafuda]

Review - Ide Yousuke's Mahjong Class (PSN)

Details:

This game costs 600 Yen from the Japanese PSN store, and once downloaded can be played on the PS3 or dropped onto a PSP. It is a Japanese PS1 / PSX title.

The Game:

There are 2 kinds of people: ones that can play Mahjong, and ones that can't. When I first purchased this game I fell into the latter category, but now I can play to a certain extent.

Anyway, the game really consists of 3 sections: Tutorial, Free Play, and Tournament.

Tutorial is split into 14 sections, each supposed to be tackled in a day, so the theory is that in two weeks you will be fairly competent in all things Mahjong. Each day is split into a training section and a quiz section. Overall it is pretty good, and if you are prepared to put the time in then you can teach yourself how to play the game.

Free Play pits you against 3 CPU controlled players, and you can select the difficulty level of each. There are maybe 12 CPU 'characters', and their levels vary. Unfortunately though, they are all cheating bastards. There isn't really any objective to this section of the game, other than to grind away at as much Mahjong as you can take.

Tournament is, well, a tournament. Split into 4 stages, and you need to beat each stage in order to get to the final. I got about 3/4 of the way through this before the game pissed me off so badly that I deleted it off my memory stick.

Summary:

If you are thinking of getting this in order to teach yourself Mahjong, then it does a pretty good job for the money, but bear in mind it is 100% Japanese and probably a lot of Japanese you have never encountered before, so there is a lot of work to do. If you don't know Japanese, get something else. Unfortunately though the CPU is such a cheating piece of shit that the main game is unbearable. In Free Play the CPU basically either lets you win (you get big winning streaks) or craps all over you (you don't win at all), and there really isn't anything beyond that. Bear in mind that the CPU controls the tiles and 3 of the players, and you get the picture. In Tournament mode, the CPU just craps all over you, all the time. Some of the bullshit it pulls off is unbelievable. It is a long time since a game has pissed me off as much as this one.

If you are thinking of getting this in order to play some Mahjong on the cheap, then don't. You already know the game, and it won't take you more than 30 minutes to realise that the CPU is cheap. Does anyone find it fun to play against cheats? No.

For people in the former category - 5/10
For people in the latter category - 2/10