Mahjong Forbidden Temple

There are not many ways to make a Mahjong game groundbreaking nowadays, given the fact that the original game is very basic to begin with, and there already are hundreds of variants to choose from. However, originality is not such a big requirement on the casual market, because most players are just happy to play something that at least looks a bit different.

Mahjong Forbidden Temple is a classic Mahjong game in which you are presented with a plethora of levels and a neat background story to keep you invested throughout the main campaign. However, everything about the gameplay is as simple as it gets, which means that you should be able to jump straight in and skip the tutorial entirely without missing anything of importance.

The story takes you through an ancient Japanese temple that also happens to be corrupted by evil spirits, although this aspect of the game resides in the background most of the time, without affecting the gameplay too much. On the other hand, it’s nice to follow a plot as you beat the levels, because it doesn’t feel too much like a grind and it gives you something to look forward too.

All you have to do in order to clear the stages is remove every tile from the screen as quickly as possible, and there’s even a timer to keep track of your score. You can receive up to three stars for your effort, depending on how quickly you manage to clear the table. The tiles themselves are the classic ones, sporting the usual Chinese symbols and drawings.

As for the graphics, you shouldn’t expect too much from a Mahjong game, but it must be mentioned that Mahjong Forbidden Temple runs in a pretty low resolution, even for a casual game. Hence, there’s a fair bit of pixelation to take into account, and it’s almost impossible to enjoy the game properly if you turn on the windowed mode on a decently large monitor.

In the end, it’s obvious that Mahjong Forbidden Temple does not make any effort to bring new ideas to the table, but at least it runs smoothly and it features plenty of levels. Thus, it can be the perfect time waster if you are a Mahjong fan.