Forget Shanghai! Real Mahjong Comes to Xbox Live

This might not look like a ton of fun to those of you that prefer your gaming with action, drama, magic, or pixels, but I assure you it’s something I’ve been excitedly anticipating for years.

The tiles may look familiar but if the layout looks funny it’s because this is what the ancient Asian game of Mahjong is really about. Actually, if you go by the depiction of characters in movies and manga it leads to laziness and a penchant for organized crime. In reality it’s comparable to Poker but about a hundred times more complex, and until the week of January 28th, 2009 it was nearly impossible to play in english.

The first console offering from Taiwan’s Fun Town games portal, if anyone can translate the complex game of Mahjong and bring it outside of Asia, it’s these guys.  The site has been around since 1999 and revolutionized the immensely popular pastime by bringing it online and letting people play head-to-head all across Asia. With the Xbox Live Arcade release they’re not only bringing the game to the U.S. but connecting players around the world for the first time. As the Google translated press release puts it, it’ll be a “borderless war”.

You’re not drafted into this war without some training though, FunTown Mahjong promises a tutorial mode which is what I’m really looking forward to. Not only are there Chinese, Japanese, and Korean variations of the game, there are layers of rules and even ceremonies that I’ve never been able to figure out on my own. Even at the questionable price of 800 Microsoft Points (that’s about ten Earth bucks), this one’s an instant purchase for me.