Magical Indeed

I was in for quite a surprise when I first started up Alice's Magical Mahjong. I didn't realize that it was going to be that Alice. Sure enough, this game is based off of the classic movie (and book!) Alice in Wonderland. Are you ready for a fun and nostalgic trip as you Mahjong your way right through Wonderland?

I think we all now how this story starts. Alice is having a picnic in the park and her sister is boring her to tears, reading from a history book. So our little protagonist ventures off on her own, where she spots a rabbit wearing glasses and panicking over being late. Her curiosity peaked, Alice follows him down his rabbit hole, where she ends up in the strange place known as Wonderland.

As you travel through the land, you'll help various characters from the popular story. For starters, the rabbit can't find his white gloves, which he needs right away. Your first task is to find them for him by completing a few games of Mahjong.

It's Mahjong Time

Mahjong is a classic tile-matching game that originated in China years ago. And when I say years ago, I mean exactly that. Most people think that the game was invented around 1850 and was based on a card game from the Ming Dynasty.

The rules are simple but winning a game rarely is. Each tile has a design - in this case, with an Alice in Wonderland theme - and you must match them to remove them. You can't click on tiles that are buried (obviously), nor can you click on tiles that are surrounded on both sides. That's more or less all of the rules. However, as many people can attest to, winning a game is anything but easy. You have to be slow and strategic, planning out your every move. It's very possible to work yourself into a stalemate.

The objective here is to match the two golden tiles which are usually decorated with a picture of what you're currently looking for; in the first few levels, they show white gloves. After you match these tiles, you win, usually with a lot of tiles left over. That's perfectly okay!

Hidden Objects

To keep you from getting bored, the developers threw in a few hidden objects levels that you'll encounter every once in a while. The first thing I did in the game was find five white rabbits in a cluttered room. While the majority of the game is still about tiles, these levels mix it up a little bit and it works well.

A Wonderful Product

For fans of the original story, Alice's Magical Mahjong should be a no-brainer. Complete with impressive voice acting, it will quickly wrap you up in its world the way the animated Disney movie did so many years ago. And with the fantastic game play and the recognizable characters popping up everywhere, you'll find yourself playing for hours on end. I couldn't recommend this more. There is no reason not to own this product!