January 28th 2009 8:53 am PT

For some reason a lot of people get annoyed about DLC being released immediately for extra cost, but surely it’s either this or make the game more expensive. It’s a choice between paying maybe 1200mp for a game with a lot of content, or making the game itself cheaper and the extra content optional. It’s in the customer’s favour. I just wish people could see that. No doubt no-one will have this opinion now and I’ll look an idiot.

I purchased the game, but the DLC could have used a better description. Does this add anything to the game other than another area to play in?

Yawn … ;P

hm

Heres an Idea. At least wait a few weeks so people dont absolutely know your ripping them off with DLC. This add on should have been a free download.

Just played the trial, 800 points is a bit steep. 400 tops for this.

Remember when Xbox Live arcade was supposed to be fun??

Yawn, come on.. that’s ridiculous… didn’t MS praise the new NXE and how sales for XBLA games went up? So, why do we mostly only get one game per week since the introduction of the NXE? Even on the old marketplace we got up to 4 (!) games a week!

MS totally lost touch with their community…

i agree with LBA. how money grabbing is it when you release a game with DLC at same time which has coulda easily been included with the game instead of being tacked on like it is just to milk extra cash outta ppl. used to buy loads of arcade games and had loads of fun with them but last year i think i’ve bought 1 or 2 max. thought arcade was supposed to be cheap fun games you can buy on a whim but they getting not so cheap and not so fun so i been looking up on them on the net before considering. used to download trial on wed then if i enjoyed pay my 400/800 for them. only game i bought on a wed in last year is castle crashers. so thanks for the over zealous pricing recently M$, you’ve saved me loads of cash

Arcade Title + DLC (on the same day) = Gouge!

There is 0 reason Chinese Festival can’t be included in the full game…. greedy bastards.

gr8 release this instead of Soace invaders Extreme, Arkanoid Live or R-Type Dimensions, yh awesome choice…….. wrong jeez we aint had a gr8 title since super street fighter. pretty poor imo.

EssCee UK – Arcade Title + DLC (on the same day) = Gouge!
yh they are getting very money mad these days m8.

great, a shitty chinese game for the week that no one wants.

Remember when xbla would occasionally have a good game released…yeah those were the days.

Are they ever gonna release a decent arcade title again…..it has been a long time. I am getting to the point where it is not worth looking or waiting in anticipation for a decent arcade title to come along.

give some Final Fantasy 4 : The After, plx plx.

Good to see MS providing a diverse selection of titles. Not just another shmup like r-type. Good stuff!

Mahjong. Cool. I always wanted to learn how to play.

These games tend to be total garbage. Like that Dominoes game. You know that’s the only one they’re ever going to release, so we have to grin and bear it. Either that or don’t buy it and have your friend play real dominoes with you instead of drink and talk about his jobs, which can be quite a task.

Yay….

MainCityImp – Good to see MS providing a diverse selection of titles. Not just another shmup like r-type. Good stuff!

i would rather have top quality shmups then another cheap a$$ boring game like this

ummmmm, where is dishwasher??

Okay, okay with the vagueness, HOW are you supposed to play ‘this version’ of Mahjong? I’ve been playing the simple “stack them, tile them, match and remove’em with usually only up to 2 players” since the Sega Master System. Basically ‘old maid-style’ Mahjong examples:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_sYLH2f4dAbA/R_G4vA4jF4I/AAAAAAAAAHQ/aTYuAcZBz6k/s320/mahjong.gif

Is there a way to set the game up in that style? I’ve never played the ‘true’ ‘dominoes-type’ style of play (match, grab, putback) – not for me. Puzzle Arcade will do for now.

@hied
Are you going to buy it? I’d really like to know how it works (added features and online play) in the full version.

glad to stop seeing so many retro titles at least and more games like this and crosswords. wish there were some more decent rpgs like the band of bugs and arkadian warriors but actually good

Remember when people didn’t complain on this site? WTF am I talking about, that never happened. That couldn’t happen, not with the amount of B!tches that post here.

What the….? Where are the actual arcade games? I want KOF94,R-Type,Final Fight online,Shenmue,Street Fighter Alpha,Art of Fighting 2, The Last Blade,Virtua Racing,Mortal Kombat, Shinobi, Panzer Dragoon, and Daytona. These are real arcade game that real gamesplayers want to play. If you want kiddie games buy a Wii. Whose with me?

@Anon 1

Are you Major Nelson? When I checked earlier there were only three comments and none of them were you. So who bumped your post up to number one?

Ms are chucking us all the crap knowing there is no retail games to buy,thinking we will buy these instead for something to play.well they have just about blown it with me and if we don’t get a decent title next week i won’t even bother with any arcade titles anymore because i am sick of being disapointed

I’ll try this demo. AFAIK this is the first REAL Mahjong game ever to be released in a console in the West. The Mahjong games that come out in not-Japan and China are always just tile matching games, which are hardly games at all.

Rdeal: “if we don’t get a decent title next week i won’t even bother with any arcade titles anymore”

…yes you will so stop complaining. 72000GS? I’m pretty sure Microsoft isn’t worried about you leaving the service. I think there’s a good change you’ll be back. Everyone needs to take a breather on here and calm down. This game is horrendous, so what? We’ve all seen bad games get released before, it’s part of being a gamer, you’ll see your fair share of bad games. Everyone on here needs to take a step back and bank on some of their older games that they used to play. Remember those? The ones on your shelves and HDD’s?

Should be interesting, at least worth a demo.

@clarky456: Comments aren’t published outright, especially these anon comments. There’s a good reason for that, too. Then again, if conspiracy theories are your forte, I have a nice tin foil hat for sale

Where’s Outrun Online Arcade? Wasn’t that supposed to be out this month?

Its weird that this game doesnt have avatar support. Seems like it would be perfectly suited to that. So this is the actual Mahjong game, interesting. Ill check the demo out.

sweet. a mahjong game from the company that was bought out for millions in asia.

“Easily put into the game”? That’s ridiculous. Games are not put out right after being developed. We of all people should know from the multitude of delays caused by Microsoft’s certification process.

I’m serious. Major does us the favor of updating us on stuff like this and all people do is bitch and moan like little turds. Guess what, reality check, not every single game, or even a majority of them have to be titles YOU want. Grow up. I don’t want this, but other people will. The entire Xbox Live service doesn’t exist just to kiss your behind every week. I’m personally looking forward to Magic in March, that’s about as bada** as an aracde game download could be. And stop bitching constantly about the prices, you don’t like it then don’t buy it. Seems like common sense. At what point does your logic tell you to log online and waste time breaking major’s chops like it’s his fault. If I was him I would have shut this crap down a long time ago. Nothin but a bunch of immature whiners with one out of 20 people being actually cool.

Only one set of rules is disappointing and no indication of new rules via DLC makes me not wanna spend money on this,

@CARNAGE RULES: I guess you’re one of those “b!tches” then since all you did was add to the complaining with your own.

@Anon 11
To the backseat buddy. I’m still waiting on Killer Instinct (no, not KI2, KI2Gold or KI3), KI3 might have to do as Nintendo owns KI1. Shenmue ALL Chapters released 800 to 1200 points a piece or $60 altogether, Road Rash (upgraded 3DO version with online multiplayer support and achievements), The Incredible Machine, Creep Night Pinball from Crystal Dynamix, Tyrian & Jazz Jackrabbit from EPIC MegaGames and Shock Troopers from SNK (as I can not afford the $250 for the AES version at the moment).

Not to sound judgmental, but did you mean Daytona USA? And if you did, WHY!?! I loved that game until I recently played it on Saturn – its only good in the arcades, in the setdown arcade units with 7 other players (i.e. DisneyQuest). But each his own right?

I was looking forward to a XBLA Mahjong game… but this is a little disappointing. First I am happy to see traditional tiles option, good for me to brush up on the character tiles. But I really don’t like being forced to play Taiwanese 16-tile rules. I would rather play a standard 13-tile rule set like Hong Kong or Chinese Official. Also not happy to see them push DLC (of a background environment to play at) right at the start. Only way I’ll purchase this is if there’s a title upgrade to add more rule sets. If not I’ll just stick to mahjong that I got on my iPhone/iPod Touch (China Mahjong, the only non-solitaire mahjong on the app store)… and at mahjongtime.com online.

i would love me some MARVEL VS STREET FIGHTER, MARVEL VS CAPCOM 1 & 2, XMEN VS STREET FIGHTER. i have those for ps2 and ps1 respectively but i would like to see them get the super street fighter 2 turbo hd remix treatment.

DLC the same day the game is released? Shameful.

@CARNAGE RULES: Ahhh…the irony of someone complaining about others complaining.

Anyways, yeah this is kind of silly. 800 points for a game that you can find on the internet to play for free? Kind of pointless.

@Anon 15
D@mn it, you’re right. You SoNS OF B!tches. Gun>>>Head>>>BANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hmm just noticed that it’s taiwan style mahjong. and there’s no option for hong kong style. weak.

What a missed opportunity. The game’s presentation and atmosphere is way off, and even the flipping DICE are riddled with slowdown.
When you think of Mahjong you don’t think of a bunch of stupid little kids in their own little sunny beach hut or whatever, you think of a smokey basement bar with a bunch of tough men. Or you should anyway.
—
Main problem with these “game” games is the price. I’d have considered some of these at 400 points but 800 is too much, especially with releasing paid DLC on the same damn DAY.
This game gets it wrong at every turn, underwhelming.

I downloaded the trial and this game has an awful interface.

I too love how Anon 1′s comment was added later and shows up first. Looks like Anon 1 can see into the future!
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If you want my opinion, I agree with the complaints about Chinese Festival because it’s a rip-off. If the game was made right, this kind of appearance modification is very inexpensive to develop. It cheapens the XBox brand to charge for such things. It doesn’t favor the customer because the customer has to choose between not having all the parts of a game or being ripped off.
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But then maybe I’m just upset because my XBox just died (E74). (I’m curious to know how much it costs to fix an XBox if it’s not under warranty. I’ve had lots of game systems but this is my first Microsoft game system and the first one that ever broke.) How am I going to survive without my XBox?!? (Is there a 10 step program I can join or something?)
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@Warrengonline: I’m glad real mahjong is available – variety is good – but no, I probably won’t spend the $10/$12. I checked out the demo and did the tutorial so now I know the basic mahjong rules. I already bought uno so this would be too similar to something I already have and rarely play.
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Oh, plus my XBox just died.
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I also discovered that a profile motto saying that my XBox is broken is considered “inappropriate” and is not allowed. Will the same be said for this comment?

@frisky dingo Where have you been? We’ve been seeing cruddy shovelware for the past couple weeks already. It’d actually be a nice change to see the retro ports we actually asked for up on XBLA. You think sales of those games would have been enough of an indicator.

Microsoft seriously needs to make some changes to the XBLA agenda. I’m not even sure how garbage like Interpol, Puzzle Arcade, and this are able to pass through the pipeline. THOSE are games that we should rather be seeing on the community games channel. And if you’re going to give us passable games that you could easily find on any flash-based site, at least serve us a REAL game alongside it. You know, I used to question the decisions of the XBLA team back when Greg Canissa was in charge, but at least we seen consistent and notable releases.

Yuck, yuck, yuck.

While I will agree that with a title like this, there should be a more main stream title along side it. Games like this serve a Niche Market. It’s far more economical to offer a digital download than to mass produce, and mass market a game that only a handful will enjoy and purchase. Interpol, didn’t sound the least bit interesting to me, I played the demo and you know it just wasn’t for me. I respect that. I like that MS takes the risk for games like this, is it perfect? NO. Would I like to see all Niche games go? Even with a double release, everyone is not going to be pleased. Gotta take the good with the bad.

The live arcade has not been kind to 2009

Anybody else having Live issues today? I’ve gotten disconnected multiple times (it’s not my internet or network), and the Live status page has some bull crap explanation of the issues. Marketplace is also slowwwwwwwww but it’s usually slowwwwwwwww so I can’t tell if this is related to the problems.

“I’ll post more details on the blog tomorrow, but here is an early notification for my Twitter readers on where I’ll be:”

Let me guess, Unemployment Office? haha

@hied
Hmmm. I have UNO, but I got all the achievements in like a week or so, got most without even trying. I now play only if friends I know are playing to chat and catch up or if I am a bit frustrate and do not know what to play and just want to talk. Thanks. Sorry about the Xbox Issue. Try to put Flash of Genius as your motto and tell me what happens. Flash of Genius in regards to the movie http://www.truveo.com/Flash-of-Genius-2008-Trailer/id/895769386 – weird. I FINALLY beat Mass Effect, 4 more play throughs.

only games on XBLA I’ve ever purchased were UNO, Bankshot Billiards and Sonic 1.

I have now got 1100 points and nothing to spend them on. I’ve had these points for months. I fear that I’ll never get anything decent actually. I want a monopoly game, but EA has the license and churns out absolute shit.

scrabble would be good, but they are too dumb to realise.

you people are amazing, last week you all complained that Mahjong wasn’t available to download , now thats it’s all you can do is complain, Major Nelson and the rest of the world don’t need to hear your sob stories. take a good look at your self, download the trial if you don’t like it, fine don’t buy it, no one asked you to!

no 14-40 year old wants a crappy Chinese tile game.

This is actually a really great game. Think of it as Uno but with some strategy involved. The tutorial could be better but it’s easy enough to pick up after playing a few hands.

Presentation is a bit rough – it looks very much like a PS1 game in high res, the fonts are ugly and the music very repetitive. The core game, though – excellent.

Who knows, what this Mahjong DLC actually do?

I purchased it, but “nothing happens”.

What may I expect?

I’m really not into games like this, but I’m sure many are. I still think it’s total BS that they released DLC on the day the actually released the game…sounds to me like it should of just been included with the original game….milking suckers for money it seems!

@MADEIRA STEVE88
Ohhh that’ll be the day a fire breaks out in the server room in one hour because of overheating. All those crazy combos and NOW with UNLIMITED challengers!??! No one will be aiming for the achievements – but getting the fight 5000 battles in one month “BLIP” Achievement Unlocked! Easy as Marvel vs Capcom 2 is the most requested game. I have it on my DC, but my DC is busted and I gave it away to a friend who is retro-bitten at the moment.

@Exu
Even if this game was free, I’d still have questions. But it is more of ease of play. UNO, Puzzle Arcade and Are You Smarter Than a 5TH Grader are more than enough to keep my sis entertained and we can just talk and such online. If she likes the demo, then purchases it, then I may do so later, but not right now.

@Hjetyekus
If you purchased the DLC, from the main menu, or the pause screen in game, go to options. In the options menu there is a Background option. Once there you should be able to choose from the original pier or the Chinese Festival.
I myself have not bought the DLC so I don’t have any idea what it looks like.

@x KNIFEPOINT x
You have 1100 MS Points? Then I recommend trying the trials of: Bankshot Billiards 2, Castle Crashers, Carcasonne (not exactly monopoly, but a fun game), WOTB: Commando 3, Pinball FX, Street Trace:NYC (I only put this as it is ‘different’), Boom Boom Rocket (single player only) and 3D Ultra™ Minigolf (if you get this, get the Lost Island DLC also). These are games I know you’d like, but you have not played much by your. I know you have the HD space for them, so there are no excuses. Get a buddy to team up with you and enjoy. If you still have Crackdown, spice it up by getting all the free DLC and then purchase the Getting’ Busy Bonus Pack. That game is awesome and with a buddy or new online acquaintance (who does not kill you on purpose or kick you off a high ledge) this game is a thrill of fun. Now only if in Crackdown 2 one of us can drive while the passenger hangs out the window and shoots. “Boom… Ha-ha-ha-ha–ha!”

Thanks but no thanks

Hint: I just use Vista Mahjong thats FREEEEEEEEE!

Great – this game is also available in Germany! Uncut! Oh my god!

@ MainCityImp
you are not very smart. please no longer post. xbla arcade has enough diversity in this sense. look at all of the crappy random games we have on the arcade. i seriously can’t think of any xbla games i am looking forward to. this is getting silly….

This is ridiculous. The Maw was slightly amusing, sure. But this game is 3rd rate crap. As have been the rest of the games since SSF2THDR. Where are all of the good games at??? Microsoft knows there are plenty of titles that gamers are screaming for. So why are they shoveling us this s*** instead?

@ShadowWizard

You were right. This DLC is a pure background, nothing else. THIS IS SHAME.

However the Mahjong game itself playing online is GREAT!

Mahjong? I can play this on the internet for free. $10 seems steep. I’ll pass.

Lets get back to original titles like Interpol.

I wish it had more game-modes or rulesets. Besides the “old maid” style and stacking games I know the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and us Philipinos all have different ways to play the same game 0.o;;

@ThePumpkinKing
Isn’t that a little harsh? This is a game (The Maw), it is fun, (although I have not purchased the full version), then demo was GREAT! I respect you as you have a good gamerscore and have accomplished some great achievements and completed some awesome games (Alien Hominid and Prince of Persia). But c’mon, give The Maw his spotlight. He’s not Sonic the Hedgehog or a Mario Brother, but he is his own (A Boy and his Blob-isk). The Maw could have EASILY have been completed in 2D, but they went with 3D. Another feat. True, I’ve heard that the game is a bit short, but aren’t ALL XBLA games?

I’m a SF Fan also, but HD Remix is not perfect. Lag has been dealt with much better than HyperFighting, but until you witness Guile tap-throwing Chun Li out of her Thunder Leg Burst or E.Honda out of his Thousand Slap – both in MID ACTION! And if you stay in a player match as a guest and the screen displays wins and empty power bars – that is not a good thing.

Not saying that The Maw is better than HD Remix – you really can’t compare them one is fighting and the other is adventure action. Or at least by old school rules that is how we judge games. Overall, SF will be chosen by many as it is re-playable and only limited by your opponents. Would The Maw be better if it were Two-Player Co-Op Online as one player takes the role of each character?

As for MS not gearing up for more well-known games, I’m not sure. Xbox360 is leading as far as I’m concerned and the Wii is now just a word. PS3 has LittleBigPlanet. PS3 has LittleBigPlanet. Is that a good thing or what coming from the Ex-Tekken, Soul Calibur and Ridge Racer and Ace Combat ONLY console ex-king!? Hmmm.., with all this technology, I wonder why there is not a poll on a website for users to vote on what game they’d purchase if was offered to be developed?

heres hoping for R-Type Dimensions next weds

mahjong = lame