Looked like this could have been a good Mahjong game, but not even half way through I was unable to finish even one game before it wanted me to buy it. Tried again with the same results. Think there is a time limit on how far you can get before it wants you to purchase it. Developer should consider letting you at least finish a game to decide if you like it.

Decided to try this as it is on sale, and my other favorite Mahjong game is not functioning correctly. This app shows that it has installed, and I get all the indications it's open….EXCEPT the game itself! No game shows at all…What gives?UPDATE: Though the developer has been responsive in trying to resolve the problem of the missing game board, neither of the suggestions has helped. First suggestion was to repair permissions. This done, still no game. Next suggestion was to trash the first downloaded game and reinstall the game from app store. This was done this morning, and still no game board. I'm hoping this can be fixed, as I do love MahJong games, and have seen very few negative reviews of this one. I don't like to give negative reviews, and will change my rating as soon as I can see that this app actually functions as it should.OK, the developer stayed in contact with me, and advised several things to try. The App store version of this game never would work for me, and I wound up having to purchase the game directly from the developer's site, as the game when downloaded from that place works fine. Now my problem is to get a refund from the app store for this flawed version of the game. I don't blame the developers, but something is wrong with the version offered here. I'd advise anyone wanting this game to purchase it from the website instead of here. The game is lovely when it works!

My first and most serious complaint is that I couldn't find a comfortable viewing angle. With each new game the view is then reset and for some reason starts by rotating the board at a shallow angle around the tiles. I'd waste about a minute slowly rotating the board back to an overhead view. Compounding view issues is that despite the game being 3D, internal rendering appears to be effectively fixed at about 800x600 resolution. Though there's a fullscreen option, that just causes blurring and aliasing.As far as gameplay goes, tile layout is totally random and you're unable to select a preferred arrangement. The handful of available arrangements are of the sort that clump the tiles in the center, which to me feels like an attempt to justify the camera. I found the availalable tilesets mostly chaotic making tile identification more difficult than it should be. Some are slightly transparent, which is neat, but unnecessary. Since tile edges are poorly deliniated you'll end up frequently clicking on a tile that's blocked since it's difficult to judge depth from the overhead view, which is the only way to see all the tiles at once. I was drawn in by the screenshots and stills do look good. The game, however, plays poorly.

NOTE: the images shown above are outdated, and definitely don't do the artwork justice.The current version is beautiful in full-screen or windowed mode (I'm viewing it with 1920x1200 resolution). The default board view setting is looking straight down on the board, and you never have to move it if you don't want to. No more spinning board, which was certainly easy to stop, but apparently bothered some players. You can angle the board just by right-click (or ctrl-click) dragging to rotate or angle the board for real 3D viewing.The music and artwork are unlike any mahjong game I've ever encountered, and far superior. It is an audio-visual experience that takes me away from the mundane and tacky and into this mellow, happy place. I often become irritated or bored with mahjong games; this is the one exception.Thanks to the developers.