Delicious! Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire

Developer: Zoo Corporation | Publisher: Zoo Corporation | Release Date: 2016 | Genre: Casual / Puzzle / Mahjong Solitaire | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

After the original Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire, Zoo Corporation returned with Delicious! Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire, an upgraded follow-up that offers more girls, more tile patterns, and a new candy-flavored theme. As with its predecessor, this is a traditional Mahjong Solitaire game wrapped in anime fan service. Players match identical pairs of Mahjong tiles to clear boards before time runs out, revealing increasingly risqué outfits for the girls in the process.

The rules are exactly what Mahjong Solitaire fans will expect. Each board is made up of stacked Mahjong tiles, and only tiles that are not blocked by neighboring tiles or covered by other pieces can be selected. Matching two identical free tiles removes them from the board, hopefully revealing more matchable tiles underneath. The goal is to clear all the tiles before the timer expires, but careless players can quickly paint themselves into a corner if they remove pairs in the wrong order. 

This is where Delicious! Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire provides most of its challenge. While it is very easy to spot matching tiles, it is not always wise to remove the first available pair you see. Clearing tiles without thinking ahead can result in no valid moves remaining, which is always frustrating when there are only a handful of tiles left. Thankfully, the tile layouts are shuffled every time, so replaying a failed board does not necessarily mean repeating the exact same sequence. The game can also be played on “Easy” mode, which removes the timer and adds three “hints” as well as three “reshuffles” options per round. Strangely enough, it’s not possible to reshuffle if there are no more tile matches left, so these have to be used pre-emptively, which is a bit odd. 

The game features 100 tile patterns, which is a generous amount of content considering the low asking price. These layouts become more involved as players progress, and while veterans of the genre should not struggle too much, the timer does add some pressure. Players who enjoyed the first Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire will find the core gameplay very familiar, but the increased number of patterns and new characters make this feel like a fuller package.

Delicious! Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire features seven girls, with a bonus character unlocked after clearing all stages. Each girl has multiple stages to complete, and reaching the third round of a stage causes a new outfit to be slowly revealed with each match. As players clear more stages, the outfits become more revealing. Despite the suggestive presentation and the Steam tags, the game is still built around Mahjong Solitaire first and foremost, so anyone expecting anything more explicit than the usual fan service might be disappointed, as there is no outright nudity.

One thing that works in the game’s favor is how straightforward everything is. There is no story mode, no complicated progression system, and no unnecessary mechanics to get in the way of the tile-matching. Players pick a girl, clear Mahjong boards, and move on to the next stage. This does make the game somewhat repetitive after longer sessions, but Mahjong Solitaire is the type of game that works best in short bursts anyway.

Visually, Delicious! Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire is bright and colorful, with a softer candy-themed presentation compared to the original. The character artwork is attractive, and the overall interface is clean enough that the actual Mahjong gameplay remains easy to follow. The tiles are clear and readable, which is important when the timer is ticking down, and players need to spot matches quickly. The artwork is obviously the selling point for many players, but the game does not neglect basic usability.

The audio is better than expected for a budget puzzle game. The soundtrack is upbeat and catchy enough to keep the mood light without becoming too distracting. All the girls are voiced in Japanese, and they comment during play with the usual assortment of reactions. As with most entries in the Pretty Girls series, these voice clips add some personality but can become repetitive over time. Fortunately, the audio settings allow players to adjust things to their liking.

Controls are simple and work perfectly with a mouse. Since the entire game revolves around selecting tile pairs, there is very little that can go wrong here. The interface is responsive, and clearing tiles feels smooth enough that the game is easy to settle into for a few quick rounds.

Delicious! Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire also includes Steam achievements, trading cards, cloud support, and leaderboards. The leaderboards add a little competitive value for players who want to improve their clear times, but most of the replay value comes from the shuffled tile layouts and the large number of patterns. Once all the girls and outfits have been seen, though, there is not much reason to continue unless players simply enjoy the Mahjong Solitaire gameplay.

Overall, Delicious! Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire is a better and more content-rich version of the formula established by the first game. It does not drastically change anything, but it adds more tile patterns, more girls, and a more polished presentation. The gameplay is still repetitive by nature, and the fan service will not appeal to everyone, but the Mahjong Solitaire underneath is solid enough to stand on its own.