Thank you EnsenaSoft for sending us this game to review!

Mahjong is a fun matching puzzle game that gets more challenging as more tiles are added onto the screen.  Mahjong Deluxe 3 has puzzles for beginners with seventy or less tiles. Those who are looking for a challenge can attempt to solve the supersized puzzles with three-hundred and fifty tiles in them.  

Just because you see a match on the screen doesn’t mean that you can eliminate the tiles.  You can typically only match pieces that are on the top layer or along the edges. Most of the six-hundred and forty puzzles are shown from a top-down perspective; however, there are forty levels that are fully 3D.  The 3D shapes can be rotated around and the tiles can be matched up without any restrictions other than lack of visibility due to the 3D puzzle’s position.  

Mahjong Deluxe 3 is a noticeable port from its touchscreen counterparts.  At times I wished for a touch screen to swipe or tap the matching tiles.  Using my laptop’s touchpad was not very responsive and since every level is timed, you want to make sure you have access to a nice touchscreen or a decent mouse.  Depending on how quickly you match all of the tiles, you’ll be awarded between one and three stars.   In the event that no moves are available, the game board will automatically reshuffle for you.   

Since I played this game on both my laptop and my desktop, I was hoping for the cloud save ability, but found that feature lacking in this title.  Other Steam features like leaderboards, achievements, or trading cards are not present in this game either.

The atmosphere is very calming with the Chinese background music and art style.  Many of the tiles have lines, dots, or dragons while others have Chinese symbols on them (which I have no idea what they mean).  Some of them look similar so you have to pay close attention when making your matches as every second counts!  Some of the backdrops were not as crisp on my 27” LCD compared to the smaller screen alternatives, but they were still serviceable.  

I don’t think I’ve played an inappropriate Mahjong game yet and Mahjong Deluxe 3 is no exception.  This title offers a lot of puzzles for the money and is a great value for casual gamers of any age.  The price is a reasonable $4.99 for the mobile or PC version.  If you play on the go, I recommend getting the mobile version.