Sheer Graphical Power
Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom makes clever additions to the mahjong solitaire formula, but it falls apart when it comes to the fundamentals.
Published: March 18, 2009
If you've been using computers for a while, you've probably run into some form of mahjong solitaire. It may have been called Taipei or Shanghai, and it may have tricked you into thinking that mahjong, the intricate four-player ancient Chinese gambling game, is a tedious exercise in matching symbols. Well strap on your safety helmet, because the intense challenge of being able to identify two things that look alike has arrived on the PlayStation Network in the form of Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom.
If you think you have what it takes (protip: it takes ten dollars), you will be presented with four modes of mahjong madness with which to test your visual acuity. The primary mode is dubbed Ancient Tales, and it contains five Chinese parables, each of which is broken into segments which are unlocked by bouts of tile matching. The unique gameplay element in this mode is a score bonus which rewards quickness. If that's too much for you to handle, you can play the Classic Infinity mode, which lets you diddle around forever with no penalty, though you'll miss out on the riveting morality tales.
The presentation of these vignettes deserves special mention. The sequences in question consist of nicely hand-drawn artwork that is mostly static, save for a few characters jerkily sliding around. In a post on the Official US PlayStation Blog, a representative of the publisher remarks that the "PS3's sheer graphical power was the perfect fit for these images." Below, you'll find the system requirements for the essentially identical PC version:
Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista
Pentium III 800 or higher with 128 MB RAM
40 MB free hard disk space
16-bit graphics card with minimum 800 x 600 resolution
Direct X 8.1 or higher
I will let you draw your own conclusions from this data. The highlight of these sequences is an unintentionally amusing narrator who affects a "wise old oriental" cadence that barely avoids descent into cultural mockery, and who sounds like he is speaking into a broken intercom.
I think it's fair to say that the readership of TotalPlayStation tends to lean more to the hardcore side of the market, so this may sound a bit boring to you so far. Luckily, Xtreme Pro Gamerz (sponsored by Mountain Dew) like yourself are catered for in Motion. Motion is a gameplay mode that adds the peril of death. Suicidal tiles march around the border of the play area, ending up within the fiery breathing range of a dragon unless you can retard their progress. To aid in this process, a few special tiles show up which can perform functions upon activation such as freezing or destroying groups of their brethren, giving you options aside from the usual method of matching them. This mode adds a much needed dose of urgency, and is quite successful at spicing up the usual mahjong solitaire mechanics with a dash of Puzz Loop, aka Ballistic (or if you prefer, the clones Zuma and Luxor).
If you think you have what it takes (protip: it takes ten dollars), you will be presented with four modes of mahjong madness with which to test your visual acuity. The primary mode is dubbed Ancient Tales, and it contains five Chinese parables, each of which is broken into segments which are unlocked by bouts of tile matching. The unique gameplay element in this mode is a score bonus which rewards quickness. If that's too much for you to handle, you can play the Classic Infinity mode, which lets you diddle around forever with no penalty, though you'll miss out on the riveting morality tales.
The presentation of these vignettes deserves special mention. The sequences in question consist of nicely hand-drawn artwork that is mostly static, save for a few characters jerkily sliding around. In a post on the Official US PlayStation Blog, a representative of the publisher remarks that the "PS3's sheer graphical power was the perfect fit for these images." Below, you'll find the system requirements for the essentially identical PC version:
Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista
Pentium III 800 or higher with 128 MB RAM
40 MB free hard disk space
16-bit graphics card with minimum 800 x 600 resolution
Direct X 8.1 or higher
I will let you draw your own conclusions from this data. The highlight of these sequences is an unintentionally amusing narrator who affects a "wise old oriental" cadence that barely avoids descent into cultural mockery, and who sounds like he is speaking into a broken intercom.
I think it's fair to say that the readership of TotalPlayStation tends to lean more to the hardcore side of the market, so this may sound a bit boring to you so far. Luckily, Xtreme Pro Gamerz (sponsored by Mountain Dew) like yourself are catered for in Motion. Motion is a gameplay mode that adds the peril of death. Suicidal tiles march around the border of the play area, ending up within the fiery breathing range of a dragon unless you can retard their progress. To aid in this process, a few special tiles show up which can perform functions upon activation such as freezing or destroying groups of their brethren, giving you options aside from the usual method of matching them. This mode adds a much needed dose of urgency, and is quite successful at spicing up the usual mahjong solitaire mechanics with a dash of Puzz Loop, aka Ballistic (or if you prefer, the clones Zuma and Luxor).
