Mah Jongg - Candystand style!

Candystand is a new site that I'm checking out. (Full site review will come later.) Sometimes when checking out a new site I like to see how they handle classic games in addition to whatever unique games they may provide.

And since I was in a puzzle mood, I tried out Candystand's Mah-jongg.

This is a pretty basic version of Mah-jongg, but it's well made. You have your choice of 3 backgrounds, 10 layouts, and 2 sets of tiles.

Although there are 10 different layouts, only one is tracked in high scores. If you want to win a shiny trophy you're better off sticking with the default layout.

The tiles actually surprised me. Usually I play with the same tiles that have been on every computer version of Mah-jongg ever created.

Ever.

Much to my surprise, I actually had a little bit of trouble reading the tiles. The font used for the letters and numbers is thin and wispy, and my eyes don't like that.

So, I gave the second set of tiles a shot. And wow... I'm in love!!

This is probably my favorite tile pattern ever! The colors are sharp. The patterns are fun. And best of all, I feel like I'm playing with candy. ^_^

See??

The "flower tiles" are cartoon mascots of Candystand. They felt a little out of place, but at least they're easy to spot!

Scoring

In this game you want a low score.

• Each second adds 2.5 points.
• Shuffling the deck adds points. The more tiles shuffled, the higher the penalty.
• Matching four like tiles in a row gives you a bonus. Bonus points are subtracted from your score! Rare matches give more points. Matching the 4 flowers (or cartoon mascots) is a 50 point bonus!

At the end your score is calculated like so: Time (in seconds) x 2.5 + penalty - bonus.

You need 100 points (or less) for the Gold trophy, 101-300 for Silver, and 301-750 points for Bronze.

I hit bronze once. Just once. *^_^*

This wasn't the time.

Other Tidbits

There is NO pause!! I opened the rules in-game to see if that would stop the clock, but no dice. You can't see the board but the clock keeps ticking. Grrr...

If you want to earn tickets for playing this game, you MUST hit quit! Candystand will not submit your score for you. And you will always earn 100 tickets, regardless of your score. If you tie your account to facebook then you can earn up to 100 more tickets per game.


Final Rating

The sharp tile pattern sparked Mah-jongg back to life for me. But the lack of a pause feature is pretty painful in a game that adds 2.5 points to your score for every second.

4.5 stars out of 5.