This Wednesday: FunTown Mahjong melds tiles on XBLA
by Dustin Burg 
{ Jan 28th 2009 at 8:30AM } 
After originally being announced last Wednesday, only to be delayed seven days, the ancient Chinese tile game, in the form of FunTown Mahjong, is now available for download on Xbox Live Arcade. This 800
(yowch!) version of mahjong features one-player local or four-player Xbox Live play, a game tutorial, "vivid audio and visuals" as well as the option to "change background images and tiles." Even better: you can expand the tile fun with a Chinese Festival DLC expansion for 160 points.
Why aren't you playing yet?
Download FunTown Mahjong from the XBLM
(yowch!) version of mahjong features one-player local or four-player Xbox Live play, a game tutorial, "vivid audio and visuals" as well as the option to "change background images and tiles." Even better: you can expand the tile fun with a Chinese Festival DLC expansion for 160 points. Why aren't you playing yet?
Download FunTown Mahjong from the XBLM
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
scratch @ Jan 28th 2009 8:44AM
as a fan of real chinese mahjong (not the solitaire crap), this is kinda nifty. course im sure they don't have the Wright-Patterson rules, which is my personal favorite.
i'm surprised they think there is enough of a market for it, especially at that relatively high price point.
MyGirlHatesBox @ Jan 28th 2009 9:24AM
I LOVE Mahjong and I'm a pro. I'll buy this.
Professor Lario @ Jan 28th 2009 9:48AM
What are pros bringing in these days? Salary, endorsements - I wanna know!
Sheppy (of the Fidlious Clan of Wong) @ Jan 28th 2009 9:20AM
This is what I've wanted all along. How to play competitive mahjong.
John Z @ Jan 28th 2009 9:50AM
Agreed. It's priced a little steep, but I'll be damned if the idea doesn't intrigue me.
Quattro @ Jan 28th 2009 9:46AM
If only I knew how to play Mahjong.
joeybeast @ Jan 28th 2009 9:50AM
And the game just missed the Lunar New Year.
Michael Paul @ Jan 28th 2009 10:12AM
I've only ever played the uncover-matching-tiles version on my PC, nothing like what's illustrated in the post. I guess I'll get it and hope it works out...
sauveurdelartist @ Jan 28th 2009 10:16AM
Come on down to FunTown Autoooooooooos!!!
BoringK @ Jan 28th 2009 10:47AM
GET OUT YOUR F***ING MICROSOFT POINTS
ChromaTick @ Jan 28th 2009 10:45AM
Unfortunately it does not appear that there are any options for rules variations.
Also, I'm not sure if there is anyway to turn off the automatic pop-up that tells you when you have a Chow, Pung, or Kong. This certainly makes it easier for newer players, but takes away some of the nuance of the game. I also couldn't see anything that looked like a turn timer.
zuburi @ Jan 28th 2009 6:46PM
I was gonna ask if it's Chinese or Japanese (or any of the tons of other) rules. I only know Japanese rules, and had a lot of fun arguments playing with people that only knew Chinese rules.
Andy @ Jan 28th 2009 11:06AM
Been waiting for this a true Mahjong game on any major console. Will try it tonight for sure!
The Alex @ Jan 28th 2009 11:35AM
Every since I read that story a year ago about those people who had seziures from playing too much Mahjong, I've been too afraid to even bother playing it!
Of course, it says that they were playing for HOURS and it's possible they could have had undiagnosed epilepsy (somethings I don't have)... but still...
Aero @ Jan 28th 2009 11:49AM
Oh boy, day one DLC! You know a game is great when they do that.
tifosiotaku @ Jan 28th 2009 11:55AM
This isn't OutRun Online Arcade. What's the fucking holdup???
Dionisio @ Jan 28th 2009 12:55PM
I did buy it, even without trying the demo first thanks. Lovin' it!
ChromaTick @ Jan 28th 2009 1:32PM
Are there any rules variations in the full game?
Can you disable the automatic popups for Pung, Chow, Kong?
Is there a turn timer you can set?
J.Goodwin @ Jan 28th 2009 2:18PM
In online play you can change the turn timer to 3/4/5/8/12/20/30/45/60/90 second turns.
There's a scoring system option, but it's greyed out (future DLC?).
I'm surprised that they don't have avatar support. Seems like this would be a shoo-in to have it.
ChromaTick @ Jan 28th 2009 2:27PM
That's good to know. A 3 second timer would go a long ways to negating the automatic popups.
Dionisio @ Jan 28th 2009 3:21PM
Goodwin's got a much better understanding of the game than I. I wish avatars were in too and there were more backgrounds and music but this is on par with what I'd expect from a Taiwanese web portal's first offering. I'm just glad to finally have mahjong in english.
Rhamsey @ Jan 28th 2009 1:59PM
what is this? like a uno type thing?
J.Goodwin @ Jan 28th 2009 2:12PM
It's more like Poker and Hearts combined, you draw and discard tiles and combine groups of tiles to create scoring sets, then you win the round by going out using all your tiles.
alan @ Jan 28th 2009 2:16PM
for those who have no idea it's kinda like gin rummy....but better...i have played real mahjong for hours on end but i have yet to have a seziure...looks like i'm one of the lucky ones.
DjFIL @ Jan 28th 2009 2:30PM
I love playing Mahjong. But I really don't want to learn another rule set... as this one only has 16-Tile Taiwanese rules. I'd rather play a more traditional 13-tile rule set (like Hong Kong or Chinese Official rules). And yeah, I think it's kinda cheesy they're pushing DLC (of a background for when playing, ooh la la) on day one.
Jeff @ Jan 28th 2009 3:38PM
meh... I was really excited for this and was hoping to buy it but after the demo I was kind of turned off. There was real potential for this to be a great game but I feel the execution wasn't that great. Hoping for a price drop or special before I actually purchase it.
firerock @ Jan 29th 2009 12:51AM
Yes, I totally agree with you. I was really excited about the game and the execution is pi$$ poor for this price point. The 3D models are border-line PS1 level, load time is bad, redundant music, bad UI, horrendous voice...etc Maybe the online play will be better when playing with real users, but one-player game is just going to cut it.
Jeff @ Jan 29th 2009 2:50AM
Exactly, you listed the things which I found to be horrendous as well. Basically once I loaded up the demo and saw the nasty UI, and horrible graphics I was completely turned away. All I wanted was a simple game which could have been mildly appealing without any fancy graphics, customizable rules, and a friendly UI. Instead I feel the creators spent too much time with the 3D models which look horrible and the annoying voices and music. Also, as someone said above why didn't they use avatars? This would have been a perfect implementation of avatars.
FSK405K @ Jan 28th 2009 3:45PM
Cool. I've been intrigued whenever I see people play but my Mandarin is far too poor to ask how to play--and why would I want to learn from some other American who didn't grow up playing it?--so this will be my teaching tool.