Took a bit over 161 hrs to clear all layouts in all 9 sub-modes in Classic mode plus completing the Adventure mode.
This was originally released for PC as Mahjongg: Ancient Mayas, which still appears on the profile selection screen.
I had originally thought there were only 69 layouts in Classic mode plus the Adventure mode, making their claim of more than 300 layouts dependent on playing the various sub-modes within Classic mode. Then I skimmed through the manual before typing this up, and discovered (I must have forgotten about this when I first read the manual when I bought the game several years ago) that there are different layouts depending on the difficulty setting. So, there are indeed 300 different layouts in Classic mode, which means in order to do what I did, I ended up clearing 2760 layouts (there are 60 layouts in Adventure mode). Doing a little arithmetic, this means I averaged about 3.5 min per layout.
The game is mahjong solitaire, which I got introduced to in the early '90s as Taipei as part of either one of the Windows Entertainment Packs or the built-in games in Windows 3.11. I really enjoyed playing it back then and that hasn't changed (putting in well over 150 hrs in this should make that pretty obvious). The nice thing about this game is that if there are no more matches available, it gives you the option to reshuffle what's remaining and continue -- you also have the option to restart the layout. So, unless you get down to where there is only a single stack of tiles (or a single stack of 3 with one other tile, and other similar situations with larger stacks), therefore making it impossible to clear the board regardless of shuffling, you can clear all the layouts on your first attempt (you can reshuffle the board at any point if you wish). Unfortunately, if you end up in this situation, once it shows the option screen with the option to reshuffle, you can't undo any moves (you can normally undo up to 10 moves), forcing you into restarting the layout, choosing another layout, or quitting to the main menu.
Adventure mode starts out with a handful of still images giving the short plot, which has you clear 60 layouts/levels to gain entrance to a library of knowledge, which is simply depicted in another couple still images. You don't actually have to clear every layout, since if you get to where there are zero matches and no free bonus tiles, it gives you the option to skip to the next level. Skipping levels does not prevent you from completing the task of "reuniting the 60 tiles of insight". There are no story segments that happen as you advance through the 60 levels. So, the Adventure mode is a bit of a disappointment. At the start, you're given 20 minutes to clear each level, decreasing as you advance, with the final level "only" giving you 8 minutes to clear it. Since I almost never took more than 5 minutes to clear a layout, the time limit never came into play for me. If you do actually run out of time, it simply gives you a Time Over and returns you to the map to replay the level. In order to unlock the only things in the game (4 different tile sets), there is a Bonus Tile that you have to click on that unlocks each new tile set. I found the 4 necessary tiles, one each, in the 2nd through 5th levels.
While you get points (points for matching tiles and speed bonuses for finding matches quickly), since they aren't recorded anywhere, they become pointless. A couple sub-modes in Classic mode are based around points, so these become rather pointless. While you can't turn off the Bonus Tiles (such as a wild card tile, a tile that eliminates all completely visible tiles of the type you choose, a pair that automatically clears the board when matched, and a few others) in Adventure mode, you can turn them off in Classic mode. However, there are a few layouts in Classic mode that have an odd number of tiles, which will require the use of Bonus Tiles if you want to clear them. As you play, there are about 10 different scenes with a little bit of animation that appear at random on the top screen. It's nice that the top screen also shows the number of tiles remaining and number of matches available, among other things.
Considering there are over 300 layouts, only one is very poorly designed. This layout (layout 35 on Heavyweight and level 32 in Adventure Mode (they're the same layout with different names)) is a pyramid with a stack of tiles inside the pyramid with space between its top and the top of the pyramid, therefore making the top tile open, which cannot be seen, and therefore clicked on, at the outset. Since there are only 2 open tiles that are accessible to start, there's a high likelihood that the only match will be between one of the tiles on the top of the pyramid and the top tile of the stack you cannot access. This requires you to keep restarting the layout or shuffling until you get the only two accessible tiles to match. The only other board with a serious issue is layout 52 in Heavyweight and level 19 in Adventure mode (again, they're the same design with different names), which have a couple tiles that are open to start, but only have a 1 pixel tall "slice" that can be seen and clicked on.
Other than having different layouts (99 on Featherweight, 132 on Middle Weight, 69 on Heavyweight), the only thing I could tell that was different among the difficulty settings is the number of layouts that consist of less than 144 tiles.
One annoyance is in Freecell mode, which has two cells in the bottom left corner into which you can move any open tile to, the vast majority of layouts give a warning that parts of the board might overlap, with the option of playing the layout or not, while almost all of them do not overlap.
I just noticed they swapped the descriptions of Match and Freecell modes in the manual.
The only technical issue I encountered is the game freezing a handful of times, requiring restarting the DS.
Overall, with the number of layouts available to play, if you like mahjong solitaire and you can find this cheap, I'd say it's definitely worth picking up.
