Fortune Taipei by A
Few Games, Price: $9.95
Reviewed August 2003
Have you ever raced an unforgiving timer
in a Mahjong game? You will in Fortune Taipei! Developed
by A Few Games, Fortune Taipei should really be called Battle
Taipei! The game isn’t designed to be played in the
traditional Mahjong style where you can sit in your easy
chair with a cup of slow brewed green tea while playing the
game. Fortune Taipei demands your complete attention and
very fast reflexes.
Largely based on the Chinese Mahjong game,
Fortune Taipei made a few modifications to make the game
fast-paced. First modification is to present you with only
a couple of sets of Mahjong tiles and in small numbers; as
the levels advance, you will see more sets added and more
tiles appear. This feature allows gamers to quickly identify
the matching tiles without spending too much time searching.
Another element that makes the game fast-paced is the timer
in each level, and this timer doesn’t like to give
you a lot of time, especially in the later levels. The scoring
system in Fortune Taipei will reward you with huge bonus
for the time you've saved in solving the Mahjong board, but
you will only earn these huge bonuses in the first couple
of levels. As you advance, the board will have increasing
number of sets and tiles and time will seem extremely short.
Even though there are only 9 levels total in the game, you
will likely not to make to the end of the game before you
run out of time.
The battle style makes Fortune Taipei an
extremely competitive game. So it only makes sense to see
how good you are compared to other players. The game developer
has implemented a sync utility that you can choose to install
when you install the game. This utility will automatically
sync your high scores to the Hall of Fame on their web site.
If your score is good enough, you will see it on this worldwide
leader board.
Because Fortune Taipei has followed a different
path from the traditional Mahjong gameplay, the board design
also looks different from other Mahjong games. I liked the
fact that you start out with small number of sets and tiles
and then get introduced to more sets. It’s easier for
the newbies to pick up the game and play, and the tiles look
sharp and clear because the board doesn’t distort them
in order to fit hundreds of tiles onto a small PDA screen.
If you choose to compete on the web leader board, you will
find a login window where you can put your nickname and password
so that the online system recognizes you when you sync your
scores. There is also a local Hall of Fame in case you are
playing against your friends on the same device. The game
interface is fairly intuitive with most of the screen displaying
the Mahjong board in portrait mode. You will find the local
highest score, your current score, the timer and the level
number on top of the game board; and shortcuts to hints and
end current game at the bottom.
There are some techno background tracks
and in-game sound FX in Fortune Taipei to supplement the
unique gameplay and nice visual. The music fits the mood
and helps energize your eyes and hands. The FX selection
isn’t that big, but enough to make the tile movement
interesting. Fortune Taipei supports ARM/Xscale Pocket PCs
and takes about 4.5MB of memory.
If you are a Mahjong fan, you should definitely
check out Fortune Taipei. It not only provides you with most
of the elements in the traditional gameplay, but also jazz
it up with time limits and fast moving board design. The
board background and tile look very stylish and very sharp
compared to some other PDA Mahjong games. But watch that
timer, there is no time to gawk!
Playing Hints and Tips
When you pass level 3, you will get more
traps on the board, which means there are the same tiles
stacked on top of each other. You might need to look at the
board and plan your moves more than the first few levels.
But seriously, look out for the timer! |
