Neoseeker : The Mahjong World FAQs : The Mahjong World FAQ/Walkthrough

The Mahjong World FAQ/Walkthrough

by KeyBlade999   Updated to vFinal on
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  • Game: The Mahjong World
  • Console: NES
  • File Type: Formatted FAQ
  • Author: KeyBlade999 (a.k.a. Daniel Chaviers)
  • Version: Final
  • Time of Update: 2:40 AM 3/19/2013
  • File Size: 21.0 KB



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Introduction

Welcome to another one of my FAQs. This particular FAQ covers The Mahjong World. This is another one of the prolific company Sachen's unlicensed games for the NES console, though it seems Thin Chen Enterprises had a hand in it, too. Like a number of games left for the NES console, it is your generic mahjong game. Honestly nothing special about it. >_>

It's been over twenty years since this game's initial launch back in 1990. And, since then, not a single FAQ has been written for it. Well, there's always a first time for everything, no? Ever since the start of the NES FAQ Completion Project on GameFAQs several years ago - a project designed to get a guide out for every single NES game out there - many people have now been helped because older, rarer, less popular games have gotten guides. So many games, in fact, that all of the North American games have been covered, as have the European games, leaving only those that are homebrews and mostly those released in Japan and the Koreas.

And so, that is how I came upon this game. Thanks for listening to my ramblin'; hope you enjoy!





Basics of the Game

Game Controls

Button Resultant Effects
D-Pad Move cursors.
(Up) Call Tenpai in Japanese Mahjong.
(Left/Right) Steal tiles if possible.
A Button Confirm decisions.
B Button Call mahjong.
Start Button Advance from title screen.
Select Button Change options at the title screen.


Title Screen (READ!)

^l1|The title screen.

At the title screen, there are actually three options to choose from. These can constitute different variations of mahjong, and the rules slightly differ between the three. Use the Select Button to swap between the three, then the Start Button to progress on. In the first two options, you're allowed to choose your opponent as well.

  • Option #1: This consists of a Taiwanese Mahjong ruleset.
  • Option #2: Your typical Japanese Mahjong ruleset.
  • Option #3: Taiwanese Mahjong, but you are not told if tiles can be stolen, and Tenpai is not shown to you directly. This later progresses into a Japanese Mahjong game of similar ... tastes. Additional difficulties are added later on, like a timer.

A STRONG NOTE ON OPTION #3

I must highly stress to you that this third option is not kid-friendly in the slightest manner. If you've ever played the arcade version of Jongbou or the rare Super Maruo (other moderately rare games related to the NES FAQ Completion Project for which this guide was made), you probably have a concept of what it entails.

If not, to put it briefly, you are rewarded for winning mahjong games with pornography. No, that's not a joke. Beware if you don't like that kind of smut.


Taiwanese Mahjong

^l3|The game field. Firstly, we'll discuss the field layout. At the top are your opponent's tiles, and the bottom has your own. You have hands of 16 tiles each. These can be grouped by threes or fours if you steal certain tiles - they'll be pushed off to the side and unalterable. There is also a small area above the right side of your hand for a drawn tile. At the right side, you'll see the dead wall, where the "Dora" tile (a tile one less than a bonus tile) will be shown. Just below there, your Seasons/Flowers tiles, for bonus purposes, are placed. To the left of there are the up to 18 tiles you can discard; your opponent's are just above there. At the far left is the "prevailing wind" tile - this has little effect, so worry not over it. As applicable, match counters and timers will appear in obvious ways.

In mahjong, your goal is to use the sixteen tiles in your hand, plus one that you can draw or your opponent can discard, to create some various hands. The end goal is to get "mahjong" - the use of all of those tiles in various hands or melds without "overlapping" the sets. These will obviously be based on two things. First is the tile's value - whether it is "one", "two", whatever. With the Circle and Bamboo suits, this is easy - just count the number of figures on there! With the Chinese and Honor suits, it's a bit more difficult. You can just look at the image below. It's not an exact representation of the in-game images, but it's close enough.

^l2|The tiles.

As for the various hands, there are four main ones.

Hand TypeDefinition Examples
Pair Any two tiles that are exactly alike. Two Bamboo 4's, two blank tiles.
Pung Any three tiles that are exactly alike. Three Circle 2's, three Character 1's.
Kong Any four tiles that are exactly alike. Four Circle 5's, four Bamboo 4's.
Chow Sequence of three tiles of same suit. Bamboo 1-2-3, Circle 4-5-6.

There are also several special hands. These don't actually seem to use the "use all 16 (+1) tile" definition, so take it with a grain of salt, because I've yet to confirm them.

Hand Type Definition
Thirteen Orphans 1 through 9 of a suit, each wind, each dragon, and one more of those used.
Heavenly Gates 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9, 9 of any suit plus one of those used.
Hidden Pong Hand Four pungs you didn't steal.
Kong Hand Four kongs.
Honors Hand Hand consists of only wind and dragon (Honor-suit) tiles.
Pearl Dragon Three circle pungs/kongs, a circle pair, and a pung/kong of blank tiles.
Ruby Dragon The above, but uses the Chinese character set in lieu of circles.
Jade Dragon The above, but uses the Bamboo character set.
Great Dragons Three pungs of the Dragon tile set.
Great Winds Four pungs of the four Wind tiles.

When making the hands, there is but one other condition: you are only allowed to use one or zero pairs.

Turns will go from you to your opponent and back again. There is a distinct process to this.

  • Firstly, if you're able to steal an opponent's last drawn tile, the text above your tiles will flash. If you want to, use Left/Right on the D-Pad to steal. If multiple hands could be made, you will see the hands flash in blue - you'll need to confirm the other tiles you want to meld with.
    • The only exception: If the tile you are about to steal will complete a mahjong hand, just press the B Button to call mahjong.

  • After that point, if you stole a tile, you'll need to discard one from your hand. Use the D-Pad to hover the cursor over one, and press the A Button to confirm.

  • If you didn't get the chance to steal a tile (normally your first turn), a tile will be drawn for you. This tile will be found in the lower-rightmost part of the screen, in the rightmost portion of your hand, barring any stolen hands.
    • If you draw a Season/Flower tile, it is pulled aside for bonus purposes and you get another tile.

  • Then you get to discard a tile - use the D-Pad to get the cursor over it and press the A Button.

  • This pretty much loops until the end. This can be upon mahjong being called, in most games. Here, you just pretty much loop in the first two modes from the title screen, or progress linearly in the third. If no mahjong is successfully called, another match is played.

  • As you play, you may be notified of your own Tenpai - that is to say, you need one tile to make a mahjong hand. (This doesn't happen in the pseudo-story mode.) This will let you know of the tiles you need to complete the hand.

After a match successfully ends, the scores are calculated appropriately. The main basises for this are the rarity of the hands you've gotten, and the "Dora" tiles. If you look at the dead wall on the right side during the match, you'll get to see it. That tile is one below the value of a bonus tile - for example, if the "Dora" tile is a Bamboo 5, then the bonus tile is a Bamboo 6. Got it?

Hands will generally end with everyone has discarded eighteen tiles, or someone successfully calls mahjong. After enough matches, an overall winner should be determined.



Japanese Mahjong

^l4|The game field. Firstly, we'll discuss the field layout. At the top are your opponent's tiles, and the bottom has your own. You have hands of 13 tiles each. Your goal is to make various melds with them, discussed later. At the right-center is the dead wall, atop which should be a "Dora" tile, which will determine the bonus tile (the bonus tile is one more than the value of this tile). Above and below there are your opponent's and your scores, respectively - in general, you go up when you win, down when you lose, and the game is over when you hit zero or less. At the far-left is the prevailing wind tile - this matters little, so don't worry about it. Finally, between your hand and your opponent's are tile "graveyards" of sorts. Tiles go here when discarded and will hold 18 at once. Once one fills up, on that person's next turn, the match ends and another begins if applicable. In the lower-right, where the black text box is, you'll find tiles that you draw. At the far left of your hand will also be hands of tiles you stole and can no longer alter.

In mahjong, your goal is to use the 13 tiles in your hand, plus one that you can draw or your opponent can discard, to create some various hands. The end goal is to get "mahjong" - the use of all of those tiles in various hands or melds without "overlapping" the sets. These will obviously be based on two things. First is the tile's value - whether it is "one", "two", whatever. With the Circle and Bamboo suits, this is easy - just count the number of figures on there! With the Chinese and Honor suits, it's a bit more difficult. You can just look at the image below. It's not an exact representation of the in-game images, but it's close enough.

^l5|The tiles.

As for the various hands, there are four main ones.

Hand TypeDefinition Examples
Pair Any two tiles that are exactly alike. Two Bamboo 4's, two blank tiles.
Pung Any three tiles that are exactly alike. Three Circle 2's, three Character 1's.
Kong Any four tiles that are exactly alike. Four Circle 5's, four Bamboo 4's.
Chow Sequence of three tiles of same suit. Bamboo 1-2-3, Circle 4-5-6.

There are also several special hands. These don't actually seem to use the "use all 13 (+1) tile" definition, so take it with a grain of salt, because I've yet to confirm them.

Hand Type Definition
Thirteen Orphans 1 through 9 of a suit, each wind, each dragon, and one more of those used.
Heavenly Gates 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9, 9 of any suit plus one of those used.
Hidden Pong Hand Four pungs you didn't steal.
Kong Hand Four kongs.
Honors Hand Hand consists of only wind and dragon (Honor-suit) tiles.
Pearl Dragon Three circle pungs/kongs, a circle pair, and a pung/kong of blank tiles.
Ruby Dragon The above, but uses the Chinese character set in lieu of circles.
Jade Dragon The above, but uses the Bamboo character set.
Great Dragons Three pungs of the Dragon tile set.
Great Winds Four pungs of the four Wind tiles.

When making the hands, there is but one other condition: you are only allowed to use one or zero pairs. The only exception is a hand made of seven pairs, though.

Turns will go from you to your opponent and back again. There is a distinct process to this.

  • Firstly, if you're able to steal an opponent's last drawn tile, the text above your tiles will flash. If you want to, use Left/Right on the D-Pad to steal. If multiple hands could be made, you will see the hands flash in blue - you'll need to confirm the other tiles you want to meld with.
    • The only exception: If the tile you are about to steal will complete a mahjong hand, just press the B Button to call mahjong.

  • After that point, if you stole a tile, you'll need to discard one from your hand. Use the D-Pad to hover the cursor over one, and press the A Button to confirm.

  • If you didn't get the chance to steal a tile (normally your first turn), a tile will be drawn for you. This tile will be found in the lower-rightmost part of the screen, in the rightmost portion of your hand, barring any stolen hands.

  • Then you get to discard a tile - use the D-Pad to get the cursor over it and press the A Button.

  • This pretty much loops until the end. This can be upon mahjong being called, in most games. Here, you just pretty much loop in the first two modes from the title screen, or progress linearly in the third. If no mahjong is successfully called, another match is played.

  • As you play, you can call Tenpai. This takes away 1,000 points if successful. This means that you only lack a single tile from having a mahjong hand. You call it by pressing the Up Button on the D-Pad before the end of your turn. While most mahjong games then force you to only draw and discard until you get the tile that makes a mahjong hand, this game won't, so that note that you still will need to press the B Button to call mahjong. Also note that this tile can come from either the tile you draw or your opponent's last-discarded tile. Finally, this seems to not be allowed if you steal a tile.

After a match successfully ends, the scores are calculated appropriately. The main basises for this are the rarity of the hands you've gotten, and the "Dora" tiles. If you look at the dead wall on the right side during the match, you'll get to see it. That tile is one below the value of a bonus tile - for example, if the "Dora" tile is a Bamboo 5, then the bonus tile is a Bamboo 6. Got it?

Hands will generally end with everyone has discarded eighteen tiles, or someone successfully calls mahjong. After enough matches, an overall winner should be determined, and you'll be allowed to continue along. You'll win if your score is the highest; you lose if your score is the lowest, or, presumably, hits zero.



Strategies/Tips

  • Tiles in the suits (Bamboo, Characters, and Circles) tend to be best used for Pungs, Chows, and Kongs, whereas your other "Honor" suit characters are better left for Pairs, if anything.

  • Leave yourself with as many options as possible. For example, let's say you're trying to make a Chow. You have the Circles 3, 4, and 6. Instead of hoping, for some arbitrary reason, for a Circle 5 to come down and make an excessively long Chow, look at the hand. We already have 2/3 of the Chow in Circle 3 and 4, but only 1/3 in Circle 6. You may as well toss out the Circle 6 and let the other Circles get completed with Circle 2 or Circle 5, generally twice as likely to happen than just Circle 5.

  • Again, leave yourself with plenty of options! This is extremely, extremely important! The AI will never just hand over a win. You need to leave a lot of flexibility in your strategies! In this way, you can open up your "pre-mahjong" call and more easily win the matches because the penalties against your opponent will be steeper.

  • You may as well try forming your pairs (just one usually suffices, being one of the most versatile hands) as early as possible. Don't use suited ones for this, but try to use the "Honor" tile set. This also ties in to discarding tiles that are the least likely to form melds. Sure, it may not always work, but it's better than tarrying over which tile to remove from a more-likely meld!




Credits

In no particular order...


  • Wikipedia
    • The derived images of the tiles.
    • The various special hands.

  • GameFAQs, Neoseeker, and Supercheats:
    • For being the most amazing FAQ-hosting sites I know.

  • CJayC, SBAllen, and Devin Morgan:
    • General sucking up to the GameFAQs admins. =P

  • Me (KeyBlade999):
    • For making this FAQ. =P

  • You, the reader:
    • For hopefully enjoying this FAQ.




Version History

  • Final:
    • First, and likely only, version of this FAQ.
    • Time: 2:40 AM 3/19/2013.




Legalities

This FAQ may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright.

All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders.

ゥ 2013 Daniel Chaviers (a.k.a. KeyBlade999).

If you would wish to contact me concerning this or my other FAQs, use this e-mail: keyblade999.faqs@gmail.com, or PM (Private Message) me on the GameFAQs message boards.


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This is the end of KeyBlade999's The Mahjong World (NES) FAQ.

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