Mahjong Gold 2 - Pirate Island:

In Brief:
Mahjong Gold 2 - Pirate Island is a pirate themed solo Mahjong matching pairs game, with the same game mechanic, trophies and level structure as previous Mahjong games given away here, for example Carnaval Mahjong 2 that was given away on May 8th & HERE, that was given away October 11th 2020. You can see a video of game play HERE & HERE.

You can see community reviews at the bottom of the Big Fish page HERE

The Game:
The game starts with a tutorial, which I couldn’t skip. For those really familiar with solo Mahjong matching games this may be a little annoying, however the tutorial does serve to introduce you to the various bonus' available. From the options menu, you can select from four different tile styles; that include traditional Chinese symbols, a couple of pirate themed tile sets and a numbered set. There are six sections, named Port Royale, Mariner, Bootsmann, Midshipman, Captain and Admiral; all but Port Royale are locked at the start of the game. Each of these sections have 20 boards, which apart from the first will also be locked. To unlock the next table you have to complete the previous table.

You start the game as a Cabin Boy in the notorious pirate haven of Port Royale; as you earn points you will be promoted to Mariner and beyond (requires 30 points to your first promotion). Each level is introduced by a level goals window. Each level can earn you thee gold stars; apart from giving you an incentive to replay the levels again if you fail to get three gold stars, the stars also serve towards your promotions. To earn all three you have to complete all the level goals that you'll see pop up at the start of each level; for example, the very first three level goals are to remove six special tiles (coloured gold), earn 500 points or 1000 points. Attaining only one of these will give you 1 gold star, two goals gives you two gold stars etc etc. The second level goals are even harder because you have to complete the level in 33 moves or less, collect 26 special tiles and earn 1850 points and even harder on the third level, i.e. remove 10 special tiles, earn 2600 points and complete the level in 27 moves. Once the last gold tile has been removed the level ends, even if you haven't removed the remaining tiles.

As most of you will know, the main aim of a solo Mahjong game is to find matching pairs of tiles and to remove all from the board. Click on each pair in turn to remove them from the board. You can't remove tiles that are surrounded on three sides and depending on their location when two sides are blocked. Tiles are considered to be matching if they are of the same category and value.

To make the game easier you can use the reveal skill (a bulb symbol in the bottom left corner of the board). This will shade out all tiles that are blocked. Even though flower and season tiles are different from each other, they can also be paired together. If it looks like there are no other pairs to match, due in part to them being blocked, you can use the shuffle key which is located in the bottom right corner of the board. To reuse the shuffle bonus you need to pair up a tile that is coloured silver. (See images). If there are no moves left the shuffle skill will activate automatically (see the fourth image from the bottom). All gold tiles need to be removed to complete a level. The quicker you remove tiles the higher your reward index will be. You can see the index next to the shuffle button. If you remove paired tiles quickly you'll see the index increase; if you dally the index will fall. The index is used as a multiplier; so, say for example, at the end of the round your score was 299, with an index of three, your final score for that level would be 3 x 299= 897. Of the levels I've played so far I've failed to get enough multipliers to attain the score goal. You'll definitely need to get at least an index of 3 to ensure you attain the score goal.,

Conclusion:
If you enjoy playing Mahjong match two games, then this is yet another you’ll probably enjoy. It has a light-hearted pirate feel to the game. As for the music, it’s pretty nondescript and I found it a little annoying/distracting after several minutes; so, did eventually turn off the music via the options menu and played my own as background noise. The graphics are good, and the tiles are easily distinguished, especially if you choose the numbered tile set. I didn't find anything exceptional or original about Mahjong Gold 2 - Pirate Island, but it is a decent time waster that's similar to several Mahjong games we've been given over the last few years. I suggest you download, install and check it out. Let me know what you think.

Regards Whiterabbit-uk aka Stephen

If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game for free via TooMKY Games 24/7 HERE; or, If you prefer to support the developer by purchasing the game, you can get it directly from Big Fish Games HERE

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Other Free Games:
The latest game from Epic Games is now live and is called Frostpunk it's a society survival game where heat means life and every decision comes at a price. In an entirely frozen world, people develop steam-powered technology to oppose the overwhelming cold. You face the task of building the last city on Earth and securing the means necessary for your community to survive, which you'll find HERE. It ends tomorrow Thursday 10th June at at 4pm (UK time/11am EST), where it will be replaced by a mystery game. If you play online with friends there's a decent PvE/PvP free FPS game called Scavengers and you can still get the clicker RPG Idle Champions as well as other multiplayer games. I've been posting redeemable codes (time limited for 5 to 7 days from the day of posting) for free chests over in the forums HERE. They contain various items that boost your heroes abilities and health as well as affect your group of heroes in game, for example potions that boost health or DPS, contracts that can improve armour or weapons already used by the heroes or other contracts that add specific amounts of gold to your bank as well as items of jewellery, armour or weapons that buff your characters stats. I don't usually play clicker type games, but this one is well supported by the developer and has a massive following. I'll be posting codes for as long as I continue to play the game. I've posted some help sheets and links to a game wiki via the above link as well

Please see Delenn's threads for Steam and Non Steam freebies HERE and HERE respectively. It’s worth adding these to your favourites and checking regularly for available freebies. Most are only free for a specific time. If you miss the deadline you’ll miss out. Once added to your account, it’s yours to keep. Delenn has recently posted details of more Steam games that are temporarily free. One may be until it leaves early access??? - i.e. Tower Ball - Incremental Tower Défense plus a reflex game called Keyboard Killers are still free. Delenn posted details of a free origin came called Battlefield 4 which is available for free if you have an Amazon Prime account (If you like FPS games, it's a brilliant game to own.

You'll find hundreds of freeware games of all arcade and indie genres on Itch.io and Caimans Games as well as other sources. Please do check out the game discussion forums for older posts HERE (the sticky section is useful). Many of the earlier posts may be out of date with respect to the links I and others have provided to the free games; however, you only need to know the name of the game to find most of them via other sources. Many of those games from 2008 to around 2017 were posted as part of a project to supplement the lack of weekday games when the game giveaway went to weekend only games around Easter 2008 (mainly instigated due to the financial crisis of 2008) until November 2018 when Falcoware stepped into the weekday slot; however, from around 2015 onwards we did start to get the occasional Steam key for various games offered as limited giveaways, with a restriction on the number of keys available (anywhere from 25 to 2000+). These included over 60 decent AAA games and indie arcade games ; for example some of the better AAA games included , lucky Warhammer: Vermintide 1 & 2 plus DLC for version 2; Dreadlands, Mount & Blade: Warband, Immortal Unchained and Conan Exiles.

I've not posted details of any Indie Gala freebies since my older computer went on the Fritz back in October last year. Since then Indie Gala have added quite a few more free games, some of which are definitely worth downloading. You can find the latest freebies HERE and their showcase list, which includes all the freebies still current; (many of which have been included for a couple of years now) HERE.

It’s worth adding these links to your favourites and checking regularly for available freebies. Most are only free for a specific time. If you miss the deadline you’ll miss out. Once added to your account, they are yours to keep. :)