/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.9828207]

Let's talk about shovelware games, like mahjong, pachinko, and slots. Despite making a sizeable portion of the PS2 library (among others), they get zero attention.

Am I missing anything? Are there any particularly good mahjong titles? Any hidden gems in this forgotten genre?

[Anonymous No.9828212]

I like Caesars Palace on SNES because you can walk around the casino

[Anonymous No.9828217]

You're missing the best video game music track ever:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJZ0AXgAyME

Not much outside of that.

[Anonymous No.9828220]

>>9828207
>shovelware
>good
Think about it OP

[Anonymous No.9828240]

Mahjong isn't really shovelware like casino games. It's a very popular table game.
I know some people consider all table/board games adaptations (and even sports games) as "shovelware", but it mostly depends of the game quality. Nintendo's success in Japan was partially brought by their mahjong games.

[Anonymous No.9828348]

There's actually a story mode in some of the PachiPara games where you can walk around and shit. I tried out the one in the video I'll link but it emulated like shit when I tried it and didn't get far.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xyy9nj0l0E

[Anonymous No.9828353]

Mahjong is BIG BRAIN if you're down to learn it, not shovelware at all, no more than Chess or other strategy games.

[Anonymous No.9828361]

>>9828207
Is mahjong like Hearts but with tiles?

[Anonymous No.9828423]

>>9828361
No.
You're trying to assemble a winning hand before everyone else. Each turn you draw a block from the deck, or take one that the previous player discarded, then discard one block of your own. The first player to have a "winning" setup wins the round.

[Anonymous No.9828431]

There's so many fucking mahjong games in Japan because they're easy to pump out with whatever theming you want, same with the pachinko games really.
Plus it's stupid easy to make virtual mahjong and pachinko games lewd by giving you anime tits if you can actually win against the character you're playing against.

[Anonymous No.9828706]

>>9828431
Yep, as arcade and PC had tons of them.

[Anonymous No.9828723]

>>9828361
basically gin rummy with tiles. a few wrinkles of course, but that's the gist.

[Anonymous No.9828735]

>>9828207
Best pachinko game for ps2?
If it has cute 2D girls it is better

[Anonymous No.9828740]

>>9828706
I have to wonder where the animators for these games went afterwards

[Anonymous No.9828759]

>>9828740
a well paid workplace i hope, because it's great.

[Anonymous No.9828850]

>>9828740
Sogna had lots of talents in their team.
In Animahjong X, the character designer for (You) and the 3 sisters is Atsuko Nakajima (as Azusa Shiratori), who's been famous since the Ranma 1/2 anime. She has an impressive resume:
https://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=creator&creatorid=1419
Most of the other gals are by Atsuko Ishida, who worked on the Rayearth anime and was married to Obari.
Katsura Kenichirou also worked on the game:
https://anidb.net/creator/2966

[Anonymous No.9829320]

Animahjong X has been mentioned but it's one of my favorites. God I miss Sogna

For Arcade, the Super Real Mahjong series is pretty fun. My favorites are Lovely Pop Mahjong and Mahjong Hyper Reaction 2.
For Consoles my favorite is probably Mahjong Master 64. I still need to play more of those.

I haven't messed around with pachinko at all but Pachinko Hyper Reaction is easy to emulate and has cute girls/cutscenes. There are a lot of PS2 ones and even controllers you can get for them.

[Anonymous No.9829364]

>>9828353
>Mahjong is BIG BRAIN if you're down to learn it, not shovelware at all, no more than Chess or other strategy games
Mahjong I respect.
Pachinko is cancer, in both real life and in video games.

[Anonymous No.9829954]

>>9828207
>games i don't like are shovelware
Cool hot take story brolet

[Anonymous No.9830683]

>>9828735
not this anon but what are the best pachi games in general? including arcade games I suppose

[Anonymous No.9830870]

>>9830683
Start with Pachinko Sexy Reaction.
It's short, fun, and has really high production values.

[Anonymous No.9830881]

How come pachinko has absolutely no power outside of Japan? Nearest parlor to me in the States is multiple states away and the parlors in Vegas seemed to all have been closed since covid. Looking on steam just gets you peggle clones and plinko.
You'd think it'd be an interesting diversion from the video slots that people seem to lap up

[Anonymous No.9830951]

What mahjong games you'll like best depends on how much you tolerate/despise 2-player mahjong.
If you don't mind it your options increase dramatically.
Fullani is a great place to start. Yes, despite how picrel looks, it is a real retro game, it came out in 2006.

On the other hand if you can't stand 2-player and want something with some meat to it, try the Shoubushi Densetsu Tetsuya PS2 games.
If you watch mahjong anime you'll already be familiar with Tetsuya (because there are only like three mahjong anime). The games adapt the whole plot of the anime, as well as parts of the manga that never made it into the anime.
These games are unique in that cheating is a core mechanic, which totally changes the way you have to approach the game.

Either way, check out Splush Wave.
They're a tiny Japanese company that's released really creative mahjong games almost every year since the PC-98 era.
Most of their games are erotic fangames based on series like Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and Fate, as well as a few others.
They're currently rebounding from getting their pants sued off them by Cygames for releasing a Princess Connect mahjong game.
Definitely check these guys out; even their bad games are bad in an interesting way and their good games are just plain fun.

In general, feel free to just download and try lots of shit.
It only takes like half an hour to play through a quick round, and who knows what kind of crazy forgotten 'jong masterpiece you'll stumble onto.

[Anonymous No.9831936]

>>9829320
Good picks. Taisen Hot Gimmick series is also nice.
A game that's on the easy side but worth playing out of curiosity is Mahjong Gakuen with art by Capcom's Akiman. Surprisingly lewd as far as arcade strip games go, too.

[Anonymous No.9833057]

Any sexy shanghai mahjong games?

[Anonymous No.9834046]

>>9828207
They are casual games for causal play. I enjoy them, but maybe something with a little more flair like the Suchie Pai games could be something if you're interested. That series is mahjong but with cheating (see opponent's hand, destroy a tile, etc.) and features character designs by Sonoda Kenichi-sensei. For the hidden gems, the Playstation versions of the games will avoid anime nudity and suggestiveness, as a bonus they tend to be priced less too.

[Anonymous No.9834306]

>>9830951
The Tetsuya Mahjong game is pretty great. I remember watching my friend play through a bunch of it and helped him translate what each of the cheats do in the cheating menu (there's a lot). I loved how that game had a visual flow mechanic too which can both help and hinder you.

I know there's an Akagi GBA and PS1 game which are both vastly different. The PS1 game is based off some live action movie or something and is completely different to what we know Akagi as, and the GBA version is just Akagi on the GBA lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3eReF-2_do
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFreh-acemY

I played and finished a few Mahjong games like Super Real Mahjong for no real reason other than I had never played Mahjong games before and wanted to try some out and porn ones were quite funny to see how they worked. Beyond that I don't really play any Mahjong games retro or otherwise. However, I do find that Dragon Quest Mahjong game to be something I'd want to try as a DQ fan.

[Anonymous No.9834884]

>>9828207
The Saki games are a good find. Many characters you choose from have special abilities. This is in tune with the anime, where they have magical powers that they use in mahjong.

For example, one of them can see the next 1-3 tiles that will be drawn.

[Anonymous No.9835145]

>>9834306
>Those discards
Most undeserved yakuman I've ever seen

[Anonymous No.9836029]

>>9835145
I was testing the game to see how it would react to discards like these. At the time I believed it was slightly rigged in someone's favour (usually the AI's) and since it pretty much gave me the perfect Daisangen hand to work with after three draws, I just did bad discards to see if I could win with a preference for going for Toitoi over anything else.

[Anonymous No.9836314]

>>9836029
You don't really have to test those games to know that they cheat. They do it pretty blatantly.

[Anonymous No.9836887]

>>9836314
It was the first one I played so I didn't really know at the time.

[Anonymous No.9836959]

>>9828207
A lot of these games have no decent two player mode and playing against the computer is soulless.

It would have been interesting to see a game utilize the PS1 link cable to enable each player to have their own screen so they can't see each other's hands.

[Anonymous No.9838741]

>>9828217
some of these mahjong games do indeed have some great music no matter the system (console, arcade, pc etc.). this snes soundtrack sounds excellent.

[Anonymous No.9838756]

>>9836959
at this point you can just play it irl.

[Anonymous No.9839450]

>>9834884
The "mahjong with superpowers" game style goes back at least to the Usagi Yasei no Touhai games on PS2.

[Anonymous No.9840450]

>>9838756
I like the idea of playing the video game version for a few reasons.

1. Perfect rules enforcement and no arguing over them.
2. No shuffling.
3. It's neat.

[Anonymous No.9840468]

>>9840450
Don't forget how keeping scores can be an absolute pain in the ass in real life.