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It’s time for another installment of Palm Discovery’s wReview Wednesday!

Astraware’s Mahjong for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

I’m someone who prefers to play board games or puzzle games (just look at my games reviews so far and you see a pattern) as opposed to the action type ones so when Astraware came out with a new puzzle game called Mahjong and offered it at an irresistible price of $0.99, I couldn’t pass it up.

Astraware’s Mahjong is the typical tile matching game that many people associate with as opposed to the actual and more complicated table game involving four people shuffling and creating a set of matching tiles. It is a solitaire game where it’s best played by someone playing by himself. The computer or in this case, the iPhone or iPod Touch will create and lay out a board of tiles in a certain design and your objective is to match identical tiles and remove them from the board until you’ve removed all the tiles. If you can not find any matching tiles available and there are still tiles on the board, you lose the game. It’s that simple but yet that challening to play the game as the difficulty range from easy to difficult and the layout of the tiles are also very different. In Astraware’s Mahjong, boards that are named, Castle, Monkey, Dog are presented, so you can understand the creativity behind the game developers in creating such board layouts.

Much like many other Astraware games, the graphics are very well defined and the music and sound effects top notch. There is an Achievements screen showing all the achievements (or trophies as I’d like to call them) you’ve been awarded and also a Statistics screen showing details of how long you’ve played the game, the number of tile shuffles you’ve made, etc.

In addition to the many different board layouts available, Astraware has also created their “Mahjong of the Day” puzzle that is updated daily, offering a new puzzle each day. The challenge is obviously to solve and finish the puzzle but also against the clock as you can compete against many others who are playing the same game based on the time it takes to finish the puzzle. As well, Astraware’s Mahjong is also part of GameCenter, which is the game portal found in the newer iPod Touch 4th Generation and iPhone where you can compare your achievements and scores with others all around the world. What’s not to like about this?

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For those who want to skip over all the detailed review and just want a summary, you can jump to the review summary

Astraware Mahjong, as I’ve already mentioned, is a tile matching game. The object of the game is to match identical free mahjong tiles. By “free”, these are tiles that are not “blocked” by other tiles either on top of it, or beside it. In other words, you can only select tiles that are on the “edge” or on top that does not have a tile “blocking” it. The game will identify “free” tiles by the image. Those who are “free” will be somewhat illuminated while those “locked” are somewhat shaded. In addition, if you try to pick out a tile that is locked, the game will not allow you to select it, so you’ll figure out that it’s locked. Keep in mind that the tiles are from a mahjong game so you will find that there are two pairs of identical tiles or 4 of the same tiles available. You may find special tiles such as the Flower and Season set which are numbered 1 to 4. For those special sets, you can select any two from the same set (eg. Flower 1 and Flower 4 will match as will Season 2 and Season 3). The game becomes much more fun as you progress through more difficult levels as you will have to think and consider the tile matching much more carefully, as matching a different tile may not unlock or “free” up other much needed tiles.

With many different board layouts available to play, plus the varying difficulties and the “Mahjong of the Day” puzzle, you won’t find a boring moment at all when playing it as each game presents you with a different puzzle each and every time you play.

More details of Astraware Mahjong for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad (taken from Apple iTunes store)

Astraware Mahjong is a full-featured Mahjong Solitaire game that includes these unique features:

• AutoZoom - optional feature which zooms in or out from the play area automatically based on the number of tiles remaining. Players can also zoom manually using pinch/zoom.
• Mahjong of the Day daily challenge – play the featured day’s puzzle at your chosen difficulty level and once completed, submit your time to compare with other players worldwide
• Truly solvable puzzles at Easy, Medium and Hard difficulty levels, as well as Classic - traditional Mahjong puzzles where a straightforward solution is not guaranteed.

Plus
• Full tutorial with photos to help you learn how to play
• More than 30 different puzzle layouts
• Supports Game Center achievements. Earn all the achievements to unlock the Golden Tile Set
• Optional tile highlighting – removable tiles appear lighter in colour. This can be adjusted in Settings)
• Helpful assistance features including the ability to shuffle the tiles or undo moves
• A choice of decorative tile sets and traditional backgrounds
• Ability to play in landscape or portrait modes
• Universal binary is optimized for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Retina display devices
• Automatically saves when you exit and allows you to play your own music in the background.
• Companion website at http://www.mahjongoftheday.com.

Slideshow of Astraware Mahjong for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

Video of Astraware Mahjong for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

Video review of Astraware Mahjong for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

Here are my observations:

I Liked:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/astraware-mahjong/id398468549?mt=8

Great graphics and well defined

As usual, Astraware has done a great job in offering a game that looks great! The colors, graphics and images are very well defined and rendered and it was very pleasing on the eyes to play since the Mahjong tiles look the same as the real ones.

Great Sound effects and asian music background

Again, Astraware makes great sound effects throughout the game, whether you’re navigating around the tutorials or actually playing the game. The flute and string sound does make sound very Asian, offering that Asian atmosphere. I could almost smell the incense.

Zoom in or out feature

The game supports pinch and zoom so you can easily zoom in or out on the game board so that you either view the entire board or focus in on a few tiles. Even at a close zoom, the tiles still look great.

Mahjong of the Day daily challenge

I think it’s great for Astraware to come up with a Mahjong of the Day daily challenge puzzle as it offers something different each and every day, a different layout and a different puzzle to play. This definitely keeps the game fun and exciting.

Various difficulty levels

For any game to stay fresh and fun, they need to offer various difficulty levels. Astraware Mahjong offers several levels of difficulty and especially on the harder ones, they really make you think out your moves because matching the wrong tile may not unlock or unblock the tiles you need to continue.

More than 30 different puzzle layouts

There are more than 30 different puzzle layouts with names like Castle, Dog, Monkey, how can you resist? Again, this also factors in the game enjoyment as a variety of layouts will definitely keep you playing over and over again since each game is different.

Game Center integration

I like the Game Center integration support that Astraware Mahjong offers as it allows me to view my standings and stats in comparison with others all around the world.

Achievements screen

For those who love the trophies screen that Astraware’s games are known for, you will enjoy Astraware Mahjong as it offers an achievements screen that shows various different tiles to make up the golden tile.

Tile shuffling supported

Especially when you’re stuck on the harder and more difficult mahjong puzzles, the ability and support of tile shuffling can be very helpful and handy. This is supported in Astraware Mahjong

Undo moves supported

Similar to the previous point for harder games, you can undo moves so that you can possibly change your tile matching choices to enable to try a different move in hopes that it will get you further in matching the tiles.

Hint available

If you’re stuck, there is a “hint” button avaiable that will give you a tile that can be matched. This can be very helpful when you’re really stuck and can’t “see” what tiles are available.

Landscape or portrait mode supported

This is one feature that I really enjoy. Astraware Mahjong is supported in BOTH portrait and landscape modes! Not many games offer both portrait and landscape modes but Astraware has done it again and offered both modes for this game!

Shading customization of tiles

This is a feature that is very welcomed. Originally I was having difficulty determining which tiles are free and which are not. By being able to change the shading settings, I can now make it very clear which tiles are free or not as all the locked or blocked ones are more shaded in comparison with those that are illuminated or highlighted.

Choice of tiles available

You can choose from the two different types of tiles available, one is the Chinese mahjong tiles and the other is a more graphical version.

Choice of room settings available

You can also change the room in which the board or game is played, which may create a change of scenery.

Support background music playback

Astraware Mahjong offers the support of your own iPhone or iPod Touch music playback so that you can listen to your favorite tunes while playing the game.

Timer/time clock display indicates game duration

The timer or time or clock display is a way for those who love the challenge of “beating the clock” to keep an eye on how much time has elapsed for the game. This also gives the player a good idea of how long they’ve been playing so that they may be able to determine which types of layouts they do better on.

Eight levels of volume

Rather than offering a volume slider, the game offers eight levels of volume which is perfectly fine by me. I am happy since the sound is not simply toggled on or off.

I Didn’t Like:

No Facebook or Twitter integration

It’s unfortunate that although Astraware Mahjong has GameCenter integration that they didn’t offer Facebook or Twitter integration. In this day and age of social networking connectivity with many applications and games, it’s unfortunate that there is none for Astraware Mahjong.

Auto zoom after tile match

This is the biggest annoyance for me when playing the game. I prefer to be able to zoom in on the tiles so that I can see them clearer. Although I can zoom in on a level that I am comfortable with, after the tiles are matched, the game will automatically auto zoom back to a level that it considers to be optimal. Then, I have to go and zoom back to my desired zoom level and this cycle keeps happening. I would like to request Astraware to allow me to keep the zoom level at where I have it, rather than zoom out automatically after each tile match.

Sometimes difficult to see the tiles

Similar to the previous point, sometimes, it is a bit difficult to “see” the tiles, especially the free tiles as opposed to the “blocked” or “locked” ones. However, with the shading customization, I am able to view the tiles much better but I still think that perhaps there could be ways in which the levels in which certain tiles are placed can be better displayed so that I can see that a particular tile is three tiles high as opposed to two or even one.

Review Summary

Astraware Mahjong is a well designed mahjong tile matching game that will offer hours of fun with various levels of difficulty, a different game each day, 30 different puzzle layouts, auto zoom, tile shading, both landscape and portrait mode support, Game Center integration, achievements screen and much more. I especially like the ability to zoom in on the game board so that I can view the tiles better and the ability support background music playback. However, although the auto-zoom can be a nice feature to have, I would prefer the ability for me to enable or disable it as I find it annoying that the game will auto zoom after each tile match when I had previously set the zoom at a level I was comfortable with. But that is a very minor issue and will not persuade me to not like the game. I do like the game and I think you will too! Plus, it is currently on sale for $0.99 for a limited time only, so GET YOURS NOW!

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