Two years back i went to Sakuracon in Seattle and they had a whole room dedicated to teaching Riichi Mahjong, and my wife and i found it to be a particularly addicting game. Naturally wanted to find some console versions because we dont really have other people around us who are interested in playing the table game.
ive seen a lot of retro mahjong games and not so much modern console ones. not really a big deal, but there seems to be a lot of import mahjong games and i cant really tell even from gameplay videos are considered ‘good’. So, if you like these games, which ones would you recommend? i have a super famicom, and a saturn. im not opposed to buying another console for a game if it is like the golden goose of mahjong.
Additionally, why do a lot of these games have some sexy overtones to them? i dont mind it, but this game type seems to have it in excess.
It never occurred to me that a con would have this, so I appreciate you mentioning it. I’m gonna keep an eye out for it at my local cons. I’ve played a ton of riichi mahjong digitally but very, very little with real tiles.
What I’ve seen when looking back is a lot of the retro games aren’t in English. It’s not a big deal once you’re familiar with the game, but I definitely don’t recommend that approach for beginners. Not retro (yet), Yakuza 0 was the game that got me started with riichi mahjong. It has the added benefit of being a way to make a little money for other stuff in the game.
The current game I play is Mahjong Soul. Super friendly to beginners. It has a cosmetics-only gacha, and sexy anime girls is very much the trend in gacha these days.