The No Sleep Gamer

The launch of Minis on the PSP has been the best thing to happen on the underused console for years. Even the cack games only set you back a few quid. Mahjongg Artifacts (their spelling) doesn’t have to worry about such things and is well worth the £3.99 asking price.

We get the feeling this version of the ancient game is a bit simpler than the original, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be hooked within minutes. All you have to do is match up pairs of identical blocks, that have pictures on them. Some fall into groups like Roman numerals, Egyptian eyes and so on. Some blocks from the same group can be paired despite being different, such as flowers, weather icons or theatre masks.  Special glowing blocks can be paired with any of its kind or suit.

The game feels like a hybrid of solitaire and Bejeweled 2. Every time you get rid of a block the one next to it becomes available for selection, so you sometimes need to plan your route. If you do mess up and reach a ‘no more moves available’ situation you can either start the level again (pftt!) or simply reshuffle the remaining pieces and carry on.

My only real gripe with the whole game is the clunky block selection. Using the d-pad should make it simple to select available blocks. However, there’s a strange auto-selectness to things, as it tries to find the nearest block, so rather than going directly left, it’ll go upwards left. You’ll get used to it, but it can interrupt your flow sometimes.

Click here to read the rest of my review over at Dealspwn.com.