Shanghai Pocket Essentials

.: By: Adam Norberg :: Device used: E-125 :: January 8, 2002 :.

Shanghai Pocket Essentials is an interesting name that sounds as oriental as the game, but don't let that put you off! This game has a lot going for it.

First off, it has a demo. This is a big plus, and I'd suggest you try the game yourself, since you have nothing to lose by just trying the demo, except maybe 15 minutes and about half a megabyte of data space.

That's a plus there - when space is at a premium, Shanghai will probably still fit - but the new bonus pack, which adds seven more tilesets and background music turns a 500 KB small game into a 2 meg behemoth.

"Tilesets?" Yes, tiles. Maybe I should say something about the game now... Even though it's called Shanghai, most people just call it Mahjongg. It's the standard Mahjongg game, where you have to match tiles that are free on the left or right and don't have anything sitting on them- a simple premise, but there is a lot of thought involved. At this point, it doesn't sound a lot different from most other Mahjongg games, but this has a big plus - a layout editor.

This is the only Mahjongg game I have found for the Pocket PC that has a layout editor. Simply stated, a layout editor lets you stack the tiles in whatever shape you want, instead of the "traditional" configuration. I'm the type of person who will buy a game just for the level editor, so this is a natural choice for me!

The layout editor does have it's flaws, however - it's not always obvious where you should tap to get a piece where you want it. (The program has almost no documentation.) By experimenting, I found you need to tap the upper-right corner of the tile area. This may sound odd, but this game, again unlike most Mahjongg PPC games, has an arrangement that lets you place tiles "halfway" so one tile can cover four. This is also a good thing, although the small grid (unavoidable, I suppose) isn't. It seems cramped because the pieces are large, and you can only stack five high.

Back to the game- it's the standard game of "match all the tiles you can to clear the board," but it also has Rivers and Contemplation.

Contemplation... hmm, that sounds like... Concentration! Yep, it turns any layout (well, most of them anyway) into a closed-face matching game. Fun, but hard with a 144 piece layout.

Rivers is another Oriental game-  the pieces which are matched have to be connectible without anything between them, such that they can be connected with two or less turns - not as easy as it sounds! Again, the documentation is sadly lacking.

There are two versions of Rivers - 2D and 3D. The only difference is if you can do connections between levels.

Overall, it's a great game, but it has one major flaw: no "possibility engine". If it had that, the game would be flat out perfect, but as it is, it's a little irritating. A possibility engine is simply an algorithm in the code which makes sure every game is winnable. Shanghai lacks this, so you can end up with unwinnable games. This takes the fun out of it somewhat, but it is overall a fun game!

Pros:

• Solid gameplay, tried-but-true.

• Three additional variants.

• Layout editor.

• Three tilesets (ten with bonus pack).

• Background music (with bonus pack).

• Small size (without bonus pack).

• Clean, uncluttered interface.

• "Game numbers" so you can get the same arrangement of tiles if you want to try again.

Cons:

• Useless documentation.

• Some tilesets are low-contrast.

• Large size after bonus pack applied.

• Impossible games sometimes given.

.: Game category: Puzzle Games :: Reviews Index :.