- JP release: 20th December 1996
- NA release: N/A
- PAL release: N/A
- Developer: Konami
- Publisher: Konami
- N64 Magazine Score: 69%
In English speaking countries, Mahjong is known as a solitaire tile matching game. This simple game is actually just one of many variants of Mahjong, with traditonal Mahjong being a 4 player (no more, no less) game. This is Japanese-only game so I did read up a bit on how to play this style of Mahjong. I was still confused to begin with, but got the hang of it.
The object of Mahjong is a game where you’re trying to create sets (three/four of a king or a straight of three/four) in your hand, playing a “Mahjong” when complete (there’s usually a single pair in a Mahjong, other sets are bigger). Each turn, you pick a tile to discard and get a new one. As others play tiles, you have the opportunity to match them up with two more of your tiles – thankfully, Mahjong Master shows you when these are available.
In Mahjong Master, you join “South End” club and get introduced to the players there, most of them casual players of Mahjong. You can play individual matches or take part in tournaments as you move up the leagues, meeting more dedicated players as you progress. The characters also comment on actions in the matches, making it seem a bit more personal. I manged to win a tournament, although for true “completion”, you need to get to the top league and win tournaments for 12 months in a row.
There are a lot of options available that I didn’t mess with, and I also struggled with getting straights in one of the suits (others are self explanatory, but one is Japanese characters). There is also a quiz where you can answer questions about Mahjong, so there are quite a few options for fans of the game.
Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics has this flavour of Mahjong under the name “Riichi Mahjong”, which is a bit easier to understand with tutorials and numbering on the tiles.
Fine
Add a risible story mode and you’ve got every housebound Mah Jong player’s dream. There are absolutely no huge weapons though.
Wil Overton, N64 Magazine #1
Remake or Remaster?
It’s a Mahjong game, so other options exist for it.
Official ways to get the game.
There is currently no official way to get Mahjong Master.
N64 Games by Date
1997: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
1998: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
1999: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2000: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
51 Worldwide Classics has an excellent rendition of Riichi Mahjong with a fantastic tutorial. That’s how I learned to play it. Riichi Mahjong is the standard form of Mahjong that is commonly played in Japan.
And Riichi Mahjong is fun! But yeah, it does have a steep learning curve (so much so that even 51WWC takes the piss out of how steep that game’s learning curve is :laughing:).
Mahjong games are ridiculously common in Japan; even the Wii U of all consoles has multiple Mahjong games! And Mahjong games with stories and RPG mechanics had been done plenty of times before. So this game wouldn’t have been very novel, even at the time of its release. But I suppose the N64’s built-in 4 player support would’ve at least have given this game some sort of USP by the time of its release.