DONT SPEND YOUR MONEY ON THIS GAME!!!!
Wed Dec 09 2020 ConverseeeI’ve been playing this game for a few years now, off and on. I redownloaded it several months ago and it has definitely improved in the few years since I started playing it. It is really fun and visually appealing, but I made the mistake of buying the $5 pack that would give me extra awards. After I did that, I was no longer able to watch ads to get power ups that I needed to complete some levels and I could no longer watch ads to get fairy dust for the expeditions. What’s most frustrating is how often I’ve been running into levels that are legitimately unbeatable without a shuffle power up, but even with a shuffle power up sometimes you still fail the level. It’s ridiculous. And it’s also been glitching a lot recently to where it says it’s not connected to the internet when no other apps on my phone have been having this issue. I uninstalled the app and reinstalled it to try to fix it and I lost all of my progress, including everything I paid for !!!! I’m so upset and I haven’t heard back from the team to try to restore my progress, because my stupid self spent money on this stupid game and now I’m regretting ever reinstalling it. It’s absurd that they don’t have a restore purchase option available ....
The game really does force you to pay to make progress
Tue May 22 2018 nfarengaI play several “free” games that have ads and in app purchases. Due to this game not having ads, of course they want you to spend money. I have been able to make progress in all other games I’ve played but this game is very difficult to get anywhere without purchases. I don’t want to make purchases, so I am stuck on level 26 and can’t progress. It’s not even a difficult puzzle but I have played it 20 times now and can never solve it. I would need at least one shuffle boost icon, which the app makes difficult to get, in order to pass this level. Basically you may be able to get one kind of boost a day for free but there have been several days where I didn’t receive any. After completing each level there are boxes that say “you found” above them, and I was hoping to maybe find boosters or something, but those boxes are empty after every level I have completed, even the several I passed with all 3 stars. I have no idea what a player can “find” in a level because I have never “found” anything on any of the 25 regular levels nor the several other side levels I have successfully completed. It can be a fun game IF you are willing to spend money. If not, you will loose your 5 lives in 15 minutes or less and have to quit and try again later in the day or the next day where your new 5 lives will last about another 15 minutes or less. Going to try a different mahjong game, this one just can’t be played for very long at all.
Expeditions are literally impossible, game constantly crashes
Fri Nov 30 2018 Nimeni113There are things about this game I like and things that make me want to never play it again. The expeditions are one of my favorite parts of it, but they are literally impossible to beat without spending ridiculous amounts of money. Even if you never slept and worked on them constantly you would never be able to complete them— the material requirements for the bridges are way too high. Even if there weren’t time limits on the expeditions, who wants to spend all their free time cutting grass for days on end? Reduce the material requirements on the bridges to something realistic, take the time limits off the expeditions, and then they’d be playable. So far the experience is really just that you put days of effort into completing them and they finish and disappear and you feel like you’ve wasted all that time. Why not make it doable and give people the satisfaction of finishing something? You could make the next expedition accessible after the player beats the last one. The game also crashes constantly and sometimes refuses to start. The dungeons are also a pain because you have to play them about a dozen times to get a time that’s actually possible to beat. They added this mini game that lets you win custom tiles, which is okay, but why are you adding new stuff when you really just need to fix the stuff you already have?
Good to Pass Time....
Tue Aug 28 2018 Kyvette20When I first came across the game, I wanna thought it was awesome to have a cool Mahjong game with awesome graphics and a storyline. The enthusiasm quickly fades. Then when they introduced the expeditions, I was excited again. Major disappointment as well. The timed levels begin to become unrealistic. You have to play them sometimes ten or more times to get to a reasonable time. You can’t proceed to the next level without completing 3 timed levels. Some levels are designed where there isn’t a way to win without using a boost or until the game decides you can pass. As far as the expeditions, total failure. There are usually 3 bridges in each level that take an upwards of 4-5 days to complete, on an 11 day expedition with several levels. Even if you do purchase boosts, they are still not enough to put a dent in the required resources for the bridges. How fun is that? I spent money on the expeditions in the beginning but once I realized it was still pointless, I stopped. Furthermore, now the “gift boxes” or special trees, etc to earn dynamite are starting to come up empty. Spend 185 starts and get nothing? I am on level 405. Sadly, after this last expedition, I will be deleting the game. I would rather play candy crush or some other mundane game to pass the time. Developers, while you may entice new players, unless you change your model, you will eventually lose them all.
Fun game, but expeditions are impossible to complete
Tue Oct 30 2018 Sharka1976I love this game and one of my favorite aspects of the game are the expeditions. Unfortunately, they are also incredibly frustrating because they are impossible to complete in the allotted time. The amount of magic required to repair the bridges makes it impossible to fully complete the levels. Given that you only earn half credit for the materials that you gather, this means that a bridge that requires 4800 materials to repair actually requires 9600 materials to be gathered. I understand that the developers are trying to get you to make in app purchases, but with those requirements and the cost to purchase additional magic stars, it would cost me $50 PER BRIDGE, which is absolutely ludicrous. I have no problem spending a few dollars here and there to help me advance in a game, but $50 per bridge when there are at least 3 bridges in each level is just stupid and is a completely unrealistic expectation. At the very least, 100% of resources gathered should count towards bridge repair. Even better would be if the bridge repair also required fewer materials. Otherwise, I’m about to give up on expeditions because they are impossible to complete and it just gives the impression that the developers are greedy.
Don't pay for a subscription!
Sun Jul 30 2017 freckles813When I first downloaded this game, I *mostly* loved it. I've always liked mahjong and it was nice to have a different spin to it; rather just playing the boards, there was a storyline. I didn't like how long it took to get new lives, though. When the subscription service started, I was overjoyed. Half the time to get a new life! However this quickly lost its appeal as my subscription kept turning off, but I was still being charged for it. The first couple of times it happened, I told myself it was new, give them a break. Then it kept happening. Most recently I was charged a couple of weeks ago and have yet to have it actually turned on. I sent many emails and told them I'd lose it for a week or so before it was turned back on and they never even offered to refund me for those days/weeks, or give me any incentive to keep it up, like extra lives or boosters.
In short, the game itself is fun, but be prepared to run out of quests early on (and have some levels impossible to beat without boosters) and definitely DO NOT waste any money on this game. I was forgiving at first but this is just ridiculous at this point (yes I've since cancelled the subscription). This has irritated me enough that I don't even know if I want to play it anymore, even for free. VERY disappointed!!
Could be a good game
Sun Mar 31 2019 Momstaxi6This game has the potential to be a great game. It has good ideas & themes. What they need to improve in to be a great game is fix the expeditions. One, I have my phone & iPad synced to Facebook but only the tiles work between the two. Everything else works independently so I can’t go back & forth between my phone & iPad to play. Second there is no way you can ever finish an expedition. This is my second one & I am not sure that I am going to play anymore. It needs to either have a lot more time added to play or take the time away totally. Then there is no rewards if you do get to the very end of the story line or of you completely finish a level. I don’t mind spending some money on games that you can at least get somewhere but when it seem like a lost cause what’s the use? The tiles can be frustrating also as some levels are nearly impossible to get three stars on. You need to give out a little more dynamite, coins,swaps, time adds, etc. It seems to me that the free games that give out a little bit more incentives have more people willing to pay real money to get somewhere.
A very unhappy long time player!
Wed Jan 10 2018 Lisa's islandI will be reporting this game and I’m go to be unsubscribing!
I’m one of the highest players if not the highest and I’ve spent a lot of money getting there. The only way to get that high is to spend money. DON’T DO IT, you will continue to because the game has an algorithm so you have to use whatever you bought. For instance the wheel stops working or you can’t get past one of the tile games because it makes it impossible. Once you’ve used all of your package miraculously the wheel starts working again and you can also clear tiles. Oh and then a new package comes up with a special price and the cycle continues. The last straw was yesterday when I drought the game up there was an envelope and I clicked on it because I thought I might get something special. Oh I got something special it took all my coins that I had that I had just purchased in a package. I’ve contacted the company and got some stupid computer generated steps to follow to correct commonly ask questions and then nothing.
With the amount of time and money that I have spent on this game (which was stupid on my part) I have decided to delete it in 14 hrs because that’s when my package hours run out. This is to bad when even a (the people behind ) game becomes so dishonest and greedy!
When someone did contact me they didn’t help and blamed it on me.
Money grubbing, forces microtransactions
Thu Nov 30 2017 Emilylime92Is it a fun game? Sure. It passes the time and presents a fun challenge. Doesn’t do much to progress the storyline beyond photo scraps (will the kid ever find her parents? Probably not.) That said, it’s extremely irritating that this game forces micro transactions. I’m sorry, I’m watching a 30 second ad on your platform every five minutes and that doesn’t raise enough revenue? There are levels that you will lose upwards of twenty times (or just never?) because you need a booster to win, which you can only get by sheer dumb luck or by buying them. Dungeon levels have times so low that you have to again lose them multiple times to gain time or surprise, buy boosters. There are levels with diamonds or locks that you simply can’t beat without the boosters due to the way the tiles are stacked. They force you to use microtransactions to be able to progress and I’m sorry, but that’s just ridiculous. There are so many successful games out there that allow non-paying users just as much success as paying users, with perks from watching ads the whole time. This app just wants your money, plain and simple. Sincerely thinking about deleting and finding a better mahjong app that isn’t from a money grubbing company and is fair to ALL its users.
Great Production Values, Requires $
Sun Aug 19 2018 MaelwysFirst let me say that this is an excellent Mahjong game. Production values are quite high, there are a lot of puzzles to solve, and the extra mini games are enjoyable and cute. It is a prime example of a Freemium game. That said, the need to spend a decent amount of money to meaningfully progress takes away a lot of the lustre and makes the game far more frustrating than it could be. I don’t expect to win every hand of Mahjong, but I often lose matches with 4 tiles remaining, which means the puzzles are deliberately created to encourage use of shuffles and tile clears. Of course, all of those cost money. Similarly, in the mini game, one must clear areas of the map to obtain stars, but you are not given nearly enough power to do so. The only way to get power quickly enough to clear the puzzles before time runs out: spend money.
I do not begrudge the developers for taking this route - games of this quality cost a lot to make. But there are plenty of good mahjong games on the App Store that don’t require money to progress, and this one simply isn’t unique enough to warrant the frustration.
