"Prepare to get Shanghaied!"

For those who don't know, Shanghai is also known as Mahjong solitaire. Somewhat popular in Asia, there have been a few Shanghai releases in the States but haven't exactly been top sellers. There have been a variety of versions that make some changes to the standard formula, but for the most part the games have been fairly similar. These videogames do have a following though, as it's far easier to just play a game instead of physically stacking up tiles. I've always been a huge fan of the games, so when I saw a DS version at a gamestore, I knew it must be purchased.

Shanghai itself is played on a board full of Mahjong tiles. The objective is to work from the outside in, making matches of the same tile in order to remove them from teh board. As you remove these tiles, you gain access to other ones until either the board is clear or you have no other moves. There is usually some time limit involved as well, which extends everytime a match is made.

In previous versions of Shanghai, you were forced to move a cursor around in order to select the tiles. There would usually be a speedup button, but nevertheless it was a fairly slow process. The DS version of Shanghai completely blows all the other games out of the water for one simple reason, the touchscreen. No longer are you limited to the control pad, having to wait as the cursor moves from one side of the screen to the other. The touchscreen was made for this game, you can select tiles with ease and quickly make matches. The time limit is hardly an issue now. The game just flows extremely well. If for some reason you want to play with the cursor, the option is there, but I couldn't imagine why anyone would choose to use it.

It's as simple as that, the game is definitely the best console version of Shanghai for that one reason. Fortunately, the game has plenty of modes and options to keep you busy. The normal game has a series of puzzles, split into difficulty levels. Each time you clear a puzzle, you unlock the next one. Since each difficulty level has unique puzzles, it'll probably take a decent amount of time to clear through them all. There is also the standard free mode, where you just choose one of many tilesets and have at it like a traditional game.

Time attack and Score attack are simple variants of this. In time attack, you rush to clear a puzzle as fast as possible. There are 3 preset records for each puzzle on each difficulty, which are the same. It's actually very tough to get the best time on the hard difficulty, so if you're into that sort of thing it'll probably keep you busy for awhile, and then you can just keep trying to beat your old scores. Score attack is just a another variation where they keep adding tiles to the board and the objective is to get the highest score. There's not as much variety to this but trying to beat your old records is motivation enough to keep playing.

The game also has a couple of extra variants separate from the main mode, including 'great wall' where the tiles are stacked up vertically and fall down when you remove the lower pieces.

There is also a vs. mode, where you can play the computer or another human (only need 1 copy of the game). The objective is to clear tiles on your side of the board and reach a golden tile before your opponent, or to have him run out of time first. It's fairly simple, and a great way to show off the game to friends. I've had many people play with no previous Shanghai experience, they pick up the game fairly fast and enjoy themselves. There is also the option for powerups which you can use during the match to give you an advantage in exchange for a substantial time penalty. I very rarely play with these, but I guess it can add some additional challenge.

As for the game design, it's done fairly well. The menus are nice and stylish, hardly any clutter on the screen and flow logically. It's very easy to get into a game. The music is very Chinese, which I like. They're relaxing enough so you can just enjoy playing the game, and the vs. music has something a little more uptempo to fit the mood. Sound effects are nothing special, just generic blips and buzzers, but nothing more is needed. There is some voicework, but it doesn't really add anything. The game is also fairly customizable, you can adjust the background, tile pictures, music, and some other things to suit your need. I'm satisfied with the defaults so I haven't really done much with it.

Now, for those of you who would like to import this and are worried about the Japanese, it's not too much of a problem I think. Just by trial and error you should be able to figure out what menu goes where, and the options are fairly obvious (I think). After a few games you'll probably be able to navigate the menu easily!

So, to close things up, I think Shanghai DS is worth every penny. It works great as a travel game, or just to kill some time. I've probably played it more than any other DS game I have, and with the large amount of puzzles and modes I don't see myself putting it down anytime soon. The puzzles are also randomized each time, adding to the replay factor, and some of the hard puzzles are quite difficult indeed! This is unquestionably the best videogame version of Shanghai yet, and a must-have for fans of the genre. If you've played the game before and didn't enjoy it, this game essentially plays the same as all the others so it may not change your perception, although the touchscreen does make it substantially better. If you've never played Shanghai before, I'd recommend getting a freeware version for the PC and playing around with that first. Although, if you decide to buy the game with no experience, I think you'll find it quite enjoyable!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/13/06