This review originally appeared within iLounge’s iOS Gems series within the compilation article, iPhone Gems: The Best of All 7 Mahjong Games. Additional details may be found in the original article.
A low price is apparently supposed to generate low expectations for Jirbo’s iMahjong ($1), offered for a limited time at a low price as an enticement to play. Frankly, we wouldn’t even spend a dollar on this highly mediocre rendition of the game, which features a static background, a single tile layout, poorly drawn tiles, and one of the worst approaches we’ve yet seen to widescreen/vertical flipping: merely rotating the screen and squishing the aspect ratio. The art doesn’t look good in either orientation, but it looks worse when stretched wide.
With iMahjong, the only challenge is to beat the same table repeatedly, but faster the next time. The game will offer you a hint as to the next move, but has no other frills; the audio is extremely limited and you don’t shift from background to background. Jirbo’s draw is an in-game “avatar” that you create with a separate application and can use to compare scores against friends, but seriously, who wants to compare Mahjong clock times with other people? Our advice is to save your buck or put it towards a different game.
Our Rating
Company and Price
Company: Jirbo
Website: www.jirbo.com
Title: iMahjong
Price: $1
Compatible: iPhones, iPod touches
