In Brief

A Christmas themed and challenging mahjong game. Please check the end of todays review for time limited deals; the Lord of the Rings game ends at 6pm UTC TODAY.

Installation:

Christmas Mahjong downloads to a 51.9 MB zip file that unzips to three files, i.e. a setup.gcd security wrapper, the set-up file and a read me file. Those with multiple hard drives can save games on any drive they wish by replacing the C drive with whatever drive letter they wish the game to be installed to, or if you have multiple hard drives you can save games on any drive you wish by replacing the C drive letter in the path with whatever drive letter you wish the game to be installed to. The newly installed game is 54.8 MB in size. The game installs to the following path by default:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPlayCity.com\Christmas Mahjong

However, if you prefer a different path for installation for example I use G:\Games\ name of game instead of 'C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPlayCity\name of game'. You can edit the default path when the Setup - Christmas Mahjong - Select Destination Location window appears.

Four shortcuts are installed to the desktop, three of which can be safely deleted (i.e. Play Online Games, MyPlayCity Games and shortcuts to a free online game; the name of which may vary each week). If you don't want to install the games shortcut to the desktop during installation, just make sure the install desktop shortcut is unchecked when the 'additional task's window appears; you will still get two of the other MyPlayCity shortcuts installed i.e. the Play Online Games and MyPlayCity Games shortcuts. Also, if you don't like icons installed to the quick launch task bar, make sure you also uncheck the appropriate checkbox when the 'additional task's window appears (after the Select Start Menu Folder window).

Introduction:

On this wintry night you can plunge into the magic of the traditional Christmas story in the spirit of Dickens and play mahjong in six unique locations! Earn trophies and use special golden tiles and rare wandering tiles to earn more points on your rise to victory. Complete over 100 unique levels in six unique locations, discover classic and dynamic layouts, and collect heaps of gifts on Christmas night! Give yourself the gift of Christmas Mahjong and all the trophies will be yours!

Reference accessed HERE. Dec 22nd 2018

The Game:

The basic rules of all mahjong solitaire game are in force for Christmas Mahjong, i.e. A pair of matching tiles can be removed from the board if there are no other tiles located on either side or on top of them. There are four flower tiles and four season tiles that look different, but you can still remove these by selecting any two of the tiles from each group. The quicker you remove pairs the higher your score will be for that removal. There is a clock like counter in the top right hand corner of the board, that is constantly counting down, each time you make a match, the indicator is increased slightly; the faster you make your matches, the high the x1 bonuses you make, thus getting much higher scores.

There are silver tiles within the board. Removing these will automatically restore your chip bonus. There are also golden tiles, all of which need to be removed to complete the board. You don't need to remove every tile to complete the board, just all of the gold tiles.

To become an all-round mahjong champion you must follow all of the special terms applied to the game. i.e.
⦁ Complete levels within the designated time
⦁ Complete the level within the specified number of moves allowed to make
⦁ Remove the specified number of golden tiles from the level
⦁ Earn the designated number of points or more

There's a skill and a bonus included (see the second image below) that will help you complete your levels. The skill bonus enables you to toggle on or off blocked tiles being shaded so that you can see all of the removable tiles, this can be toggled on or off at any time during game play; plus there's a shuffle bonus for when it becomes difficult to see any pairs to match. There are a limited number of shuffle bonuses for each level; so, don't use them unnecessarily because if you find there are no moves left and you have used all of your shuffle bonuses, the game will automatically restart that level from the beginning again.

Each level is introduced by a level goal panel which lists the prerequisites for that level. Accomplishing 100% if these will earn you the 'All-round Mahjong Champion title'; for example, level one asks you to remove 6 golden tiles, complete the level in 32 moves and earn 500 points. When the level is complete another panel appears which confirms whether you've achieved all of the goals. You get a star for each attainment, with a total of three stars for each level. The first level is a walk through, with help from the games AI. If there are no moves left in a level the shuffle bonus will automatically be used unless (as mentioned above) you've already used up the three that you get for each level. Bonuses are not carried forwards to the next level. You can replay any level that has already been unlocked, so, if you fail to get three stars for that level you can redo it at any time. Each time you replay the level the tiles are placed differently.

There are 6 groups of levels (Christmas Fair, Newbie, Experienced, Expert, Master and Grand mater). Each group has 14 levels to complete.

Whiterabbit-uk 22nd December 2018

Conclusion:

Overall Christmas Mahjong is a decent and at times challenging mahjong game. With the introduction of the awards, this has made the game much more difficult due to the requirements for each level. Also, the game has loads of replayability because each time you replay a level the tiles are arranged differently. I'd give this a decent 8 out of 10 despite having almost a hundred of these games in my games library.

Videos of Christmas Mahjong:

You can see several in-game videos of game play HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE (poor quality) & HERE; (the last video is on the Steam store page. If you follow this link you'll need to click on the video link via the Steam page).

Suggestions:

After you've had an opportunity to play today's giveaway please take a few moments to give some positive or negative feedback; for example, what you liked or disliked about the game, or how it could be improved. If you don't like the genre at all, please explain why and if any, what improvements would change your mind? If you don't have time to post a comment today, please do so at your convenience, thank you. If you wish to post a review or comment about the game later, you can access the comments section by going to the game giveaways home page, then scroll to the bottom of the page where it says Archives and select the date the giveaway was live (giveaway days are in bold type). This will open the appropriate page for you to post your comment or review. Alternatively, you can Google the name of the game and include Gamegiveawayoftheday in the search. This should give you a list of links to whenever this game was given away.

If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game via MyPlayCity 24/7 for free (with the usual additions such as an advert while the game is loading and your browser being redirected to the MyPlayCity site when you close the game down) HERE; or If you prefer to purchase the game you can get it HERE via Steam for £3.99/$4.99.

Problems getting the game to work:

If you're having problems installing or activating or getting Christmas Mahjong to work please visit the FAQ's Thread HERE and read through the communities comments because sometimes fixes have already been posted, for example, a common issue seen since the Themida wrapper was introduced three years ago is that some community members installation of the game are blocked by their security because Themida code has been known to hide malware, (usually an error message is flagged for example 'The executable is corrupted' even though in reality it is not); so as a precaution some anti malware programs will block and even delete the suspect installation files even though the files (i.e. the setup, read me and setup.gcd files are actually totally free from malware. This issue can be solved either by rebooting your computer in safe mode with networking or a quicker method is to temporarily turn off your security software to allow the installation. You could also try white-listing the setup.gcd file. In the almost 12 years this game giveaway site has been operating there has 'never' been a game given away that was infected with malware.

If for any reason you want to contact the giveaway team, for example, you have a game to offer the community, or are unable to download the latest game or other issues that the FAQ's thread or these comments don't cover or solve you can do so HERE

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank MyPlayCity for giving away Christmas Mahjong and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

If Christmas Mahjong doesn't interest you, but you still hanker for something new to play, you'll find details of some game deals whether they be sale items, indie bundles or games being given away for free HERE (I've not updated the thread in a while, but most of the links still take you to the latest deals).

The rest of the information that used to be posted in the game review can be found in the forums HERE. Finally, check out Delenns threads for details of other free games and offers HERE and elsewhere in the game discussion forums HERE, (usually on the first page of the game discussion forums).

You can still get Lego: Lord of the Rings via the Humble Store HERE, but it ends at 6pm UTC today. The deals on Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion and Geneshift have now ended, but you can still get Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion with 75% off and Geneshift for 30% off (includes the soundtrack dlc for free). Subnautica via Epic is still free until 27th December HERE; to get it you require the EPIC games launcher and a free account. From the 28th December Super Meat Boy (SMB), one of the hardest puzzle platformers ever created, will be free until the 10th January; the developer of SMB created one of my all time favorite platformers called Gish over a decade ago).