Alice’s Magical Mahjong

OS: Windows XP/Vista
CPU: 800 Mhz or faster Processor
RAM: 128 MB
Hard Drive: 60 MB

Alice’s Magical Mahjong review

Alice’s Magical Mahjong is a combination of hidden objects and solitaire mahjong genres. Both genres are used equally throughout the game, so it’s not possible to classify the game as either of these. Each of the 10 chapters consists of two hidden object scenes and a mahjon level – the 1st one is a common random objects from the list search, while the 2nd one is more thematic to current storyline progress. These story-based puzzles are more fun and clever – you do not just search for items in a junk, but rather have to find some items hidden within a good painting. Such as – find 5 mice in an image, where you normaly don’t see many objects – just a good looking flood picture, with some mouse’s head sticking out of a flower pot, the other on a life preserver etc. These puzzles are more fun than common seek and find action.

The story follows original Alice in the Wonderland quite closely, so there is nothing new here. But the voice-overs, nice graphics and great presentation makes the story enjoyable as well as the gameplay itself.

The mahjong level is a traditional solitaire mahjong, with slight change in the rules. You have to remove pairs of identical tiles, which are “free”. These available to remove tiles – are those tiles, which are not covered from above, and have empty space either to the right or to the left. What differs from a common mahjong, is the final goal. Instead of removing the whole board, you’re only required to remove a pair of special golden tiles to win the level. It’s blended in a story in such a way, that those removed special tiles represent some story item, such as the white gloves the Rabbit wanted Alice to find.

The game’s presentation is done very well. There are many small details and touches which make it more enjoyable, even if you hardly pay attention to them. Great animation, nicely done menus, characters popping out to comment your actions in the game etc.

There are some minor annoyances in the game, but they’re so small they hardly take anything from the gameplay. The game’s perspective makes some mahjong tiles hard to identify as free or not, a few hidden objects are hidden too well. And that’s probably it.

Conclusions: Alice’s Magical Mahjong is a nicely done cross between the hidden objects and the solo mahjong puzzles. The story is common for those who know the original Alice’s Adventures in the Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, but the game presentation, attention to details and the gameplay itself are done very well. The hidden objects part, in particular, has a nice touch with greatly designed images with thematic things hidden on them. All in all, it’s a great game to play, especially if you like both hidden objects and mahjong genre.