Mahjong Holidays II

As you might be aware by now, Mahjong is a table game that originates in China and it is immensely popular throughout Asia, mainly due to the fact that it also requires a bit of skill, rather than pure luck. However, although the game was designed to be played in three or four players, the single player versions are very popular in the video games industry, even if a lot of the rules are dropped in the process.

Mahjong Holidays II, as the name implies, is based on the tile game with the same name and it features a holiday theme, which happens to be Christmas, in this case. Other than the aesthetic changes when it comes to the actual tiles, not a lot differs from the normal version of the game, since everything is played in very much the same way and there are no new gimmicks to learn.

The Christmas theme is clearly visible on the playing tiles themselves, which are covered in evergreen, decorative globes and plenty of other symbols that aim to bring the winter atmosphere to your computer screen. As usual, the rules have remained the same, which means that you basically have to pick two matching tiles that have no other tiles on top of them and continue to do so until there are none left on the table.

To make sure that you do not run out of puzzles, the game features quite a large number of layouts, as well as the possibility to try out some designs made by members of the community, rather than the developers themselves. Thanks to this, there are hundreds of thousands of layouts available from the community and you certainly cannot go through all of them in one life time.

Visually, the game may not impress with exquisite special effects and next-gen capabilities, but that is not its purpose to begin with. As long as the titles can be distinguished from one another and the textures are not an eye sore, that's all you need in order to experience a good game of mahjong. The soothing music playing in the background may get a bit repetitive after a while, but it certainly helps to take your mind off things.

In the end, Mahjong Holidays II comes with enough content to be worth the money, especially since you can also create your own layouts, using the built-in editor that's shipped with the game. Thus, it is a good choice for any Mahjong fan, as well as for those who are interested in the game.