Mahjong Master
“What is Mahjong for you?
Merely something to try one's luck.
Well, it's like my source of living.
It's the ultimate table game that reflects the universe.
It's the meaning of life.
You have to try it for yourself.
However nobody can keep winning their entire life.”
Contents
1.Introduction
2.Controls
3.Starting the game
4.Story Mode Explanation
1.Introduction
This is the first Mahjong game on the N64. It was reviewed in N64 Magazine, a
U.K. Publication, and was given 69 percent. The music is a classic 90's Konami
game soundtrack and is reminiscent of their later Goemon games. It has a story
mode, with various characters that chat away as you play the game.
The standout character of the game is definitely the "foreigner" character E.D
Perpin. He shouts in Katakana and is constantly dancing in contrast to the rigid
Japanese characters. Maybe it is just my pc British personality, but I hate
losing to him because he seems like such a racist stereotype.
Mahjong came to Japan from China, and it exists in numerous forms. The 4 player
Riichi version is most popular in Japan. It can be compared to the Western card
game rummy. An explanation of how to play Mahjong is far beyond the scope of
this guide, but I recommend Light Grunty’s youtube channel and this free book by
Daiana Chiba:
https://dainachiba.github.io/RiichiBooks/
2.Controls
A button – Confirm / Play a tile
B button – Cancel
Start Button – Game Start / display the menu
Z Trigger – Cancel
3D Stick / D Pad – Move the cursor
3.Starting the game
When you start the game you may be greeted with a screen telling you your
controller pak is full. This game requires quite a few pages to save. If you
have enough pages you will be taken to the South End new club members welcome
party. South End is a Mahjong joint where local competitions take place. You are
asked to enter you name and gender. You can enter your name in English but the
character length is quite short. You will then be introduced to 7 characters,
and asked to choose a favourite.
Junichi Ozaki (42)
The owner of the South End, currently unmarried, he has loved Mahjong for
innumerable years, he is a player with good balance.
Taku Kimura (18)
A high school student who hangs out at the South End, he is impulsive, setting a
goal he plays decisively.
Zankuroh Matsumura (18)
A high school student who loves Mahjong, a classmate of Hatsune and Kimura, he
loves winning hands, but repeatedly comes second.
Hatsune Namuro (18)
A high school girl who works part time at South End, she recently just learned
the rules of Mahjong.
Shizuka Nagayama (21)
A major in Japanese literature, a pure Japanese university student, aiming to
win with a splendid concealed hand in the classical style of play.
Eriko Kanimura (41)
A madam who lives in the same neighborhood as the South End, she obsesses over
the Dora, can she win big?
Yuuki Uchida (19)
A university student who lives near the South End, she is serious about Mahjong,
it is her only passion.
After choosing your favourite, you are taken to the main menu. From left to
right;
Free – Play a quick game of Mahjong. You can choose to play at the Nine Dragons
or at South End. Depending on which parlor you choose, different opponents will
be available (see below).
Story – The story mode described in this guide.
Battle! - Play a game of Mahjong with any character “over the internet”.
Quiz – A quiz to test your Mahjong knowledge.
Record – Your record of wins, losses and other data.
Save – Save the game.
Help – Describes the various game modes.
End – To quit the game with or without saving.
There are several other characters who you will encounter in the story mode as
follows
Seiichi Toyotomi 42
Promotion manager of a foreign-affiliated cosmetics company. Easy to get on
with, loves declaring riichi, he has great Mahjong ability.
Juuzoh Senno 75
A calligrapher. He hates to show his feelings. He plays authentic mahjong and
focuses on listenijg to other players whilst putting importance on the yaku in
his hand.
Gohki Takeda 51
A real estate manager who plays mahjong as a hobby. He is a tactician who uses
things like surprise attacks and smoke screens.
Yakumaru Ozawa 27
A strong young player who makes use of the logic and probability knowledge he
has learned from his job as a game maker and programmer.
E.D Perpin 21
An international student from the United States who is very cheerful. He focuses
on building pairs when playing Mahjong.
Tooru Yamazaki 40
An office worker working for a food company. He is a peerless reader of other
Mahjong players.
Houoh Miyako 69
An elderly lady, who has spent half of her life abroad. Her stubborn
determination to declare riichi is her mental reinforcement.
Modori Yoshinaga 42
A restaurant manager. It seems she has a policy of trying to make a fortune by
piling up small hands.
Fa Kai Hua 24
The only daughter of the well-established mahjong parlor "The Nine Dragons". She
is very familiar with Mahjong.
(She is the character on the game box)
Beni Kudoh 28
A waitress. She has a tendency to collect value-added tiles such as the Dora
Round/Seat wind tiles.
4.Story Mode Explanation
When you select story mode the month schedule will be displayed.
Here you can see the options for:
Monthly League game – A three level league from A to C brackets.
Title game - A one shot monthly game, with varying rules. If you are not in the
league you cannot enter. Points that you win this game are also added to your
overall standing.
Ranking – Shows the ranking of all local players
Move to next month – Advances time by one month. If you select this when you
have games to play, you will naturally forfit those games and lose ranks.
If you can qualify for any of those games, the text will be in yellow.
Options
Before you start a match you can change several options. Some of them make the
games play a lot faster so I recommend you change them. Here are the options on
the options screen.
Check the Rules - shows the rules in play for the current game.
Advice - Gives advice for how to play, not available in story mode.
Adjust the game location - Not available in story mode.
Tile sorting - If set to 自動的 it will automatically sort your tiles.
Screen options - Screen size, faces on/off, tile animations, return to default.
Speech options - Show speech, talking speed, voices on/off, restore default.
Sound Options - Choose a song to play, stereo or mono
Quit the current game - Not available in story mode
Return to the game.
The Strongest Player Title
In order to win this game and see the credits you need to win both the A league
and all 12 monthly tournaments that occur throughout the year. Needless to say,
this is very difficult and will take an extremely long time.
There are three tournament brackets A,B and C. A being the best. Each bracket
contains 5 players. The league plays for ten months and the points of each
player are added up at the end and the player with the most is the winner.
Players start with 30,000 points, and are awarded 1000 points for every win.
The top 4 players in A league then play a game to determine the "Strongest
Player".
In December the top 2 players in C league play the bottom 2 players in B league.
After the game, the top 2 players move to B league the next year and the bottom
2 players move to C league. In the same way, the top 3 players in B league play
the last placed player in A league in December. From that game, 1 winner moves
up to A league and the other 3 players move to B league the next year. In C
league the 3 players with the lowest score are removed from the league, and must
wait to qualify again.
Because of this system, it means that it takes at least three years to win the
title. I recommend save scumming in order to get the most desirable outcome.
The game starts in December. First you need to qualify for the C bracket, the
qualifying game is this month. You must place in the top three to enter the C
bracket.
If these all seems too much for you can enter this variation of the Konami code
while the intro movie is playing to skip straight to the credits.
Up, Up, Down, Down, L trigger , R trigger , L trigger, R trigger, B, A.
