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Genre: Strategy

Format: Shareware (download)

Developer: Liquid Metal Software

Publisher: Ambrosia Software

Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X v10.1

Review Computer: 400 MHz G4 (Gigabit Ethernet) with 768MB RAM, ATI Rage 128 Pro (16MB), and Mac OS X v10.3.2

Network Feature: No

Price: $20.00

ESRB Rating: N/A

Availability: Now

Official Website: [url=http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/aki/]http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/aki/[/url]

Mahjong Solitaire is a tile game nearly as popular as solitaire card games themselves, and there are many shareware, commercial, and online versions of both available. With so many to choose from, each game developer adds their own twist to make their version of Mahjong unique. Aki gives an historical and geographical perspective as you complete each level while traveling through Japan. Is this enough to make Aki the Mahjong solitaire game you should own?

Aki starts out on a map which shows the area of Japan around Hiroshima with each lantern representing a level. When you move your arrow over a lantern, you see a preview of the tile arrangement in the upper right corner. When you win the first level you can play the next one and so on until you have unlocked all twelve levels. Once you've unlocked a level, you can play it at any time without affecting the levels you've already unlocked.

Once you select the level you wish to play, you will be presented with a brief description of the location. Near the middle bottom of the screen is a row of marbles which fade away while you play. When all of the marbles disappear, you lose. You have to clear all of the tiles from the board by selecting two tiles which look the same and which can slide either to the right or left and don't have another tile on top of them. When you match tiles, you get time added to your total. But, if you ask for a hint or reshuffle the tiles, time will be taken away. You can also play in practice mode, which doesn't have a time limit but won't unlock the next level if you win.

The tile designs are traditional, although they look a bit fuzzy—similar to a JPEG file saved at a low quality—which made it harder for me to make matches. You aren't able to select other tile designs, so I would have liked the one that was included to be of better quality. At times, it's difficult to tell which layer the tiles are on, and sometimes the bottom half of a tile will get obscured by the tiles in front of it. These quibbles aside, the layout designs strike a good balance between difficulty and enjoyment.

Aki keeps statistics for each level, including the shortest time you took to win and how many times you've won, lost and given up. I would have liked the statistics to have differentiated between the three levels of difficulty, as right now they are all shown on the one screen. Likewise, I would have liked to see the difficulty levels determining which levels you've unlocked. So, you might have unlocked all twelve levels on easy but on Medium you may only have unlocked the first six. As it is, once you unlock a level it's unlocked for all of the difficulties.

Every aspect of Aki is designed to give a Japanese feel, from the music to the tile designs to the interface. When you lose a level, you're given words of wisdom such as "eggs and vows are easily broken," "even monkeys fall from trees" and "add caution to caution." I'm not sure how they would inspire you to try again, but they are certainly interesting. It's too bad the tiles cover up the very nice backgrounds which show the location in Japan in which the level takes place. I would have liked to have been able to see the picture without the tiles or perhaps to use them as a background image as a reward for winning the level. Sound effects include the click when you select a tile and the swoosh as a pair disappears and the music is an upbeat asian style.

The question still remains, is Aki a game worthy of purchase? While Aki doesn't have some of the features other Mahjong games have, it is more enjoyable to play overall. The time limit adds a fast pace and the Japanese theme is much nicer than the sterile feel most other Mahjong games have. Having levels and difficulty levels provides goals to work towards, and the graphics are attractive. If you want a good Mahjong game, I recommend buying Aki.