Shanghai Pocket

Overview

Shanghai Pocket is a mahjong solitaire game developed and published by SUNSOFT (under license from Activision) for the Game Boy in Japan on August 6, 1998, followed by an overseas Game Boy Color release later that year and a Japanese WonderSwan release on April 1, 1999.

The third handheld adaptation of the Shanghai series (after both the Game Boy port of Shanghai and the Game Gear port of Shanghai II), Shanghai Pocket features three game modes:

• Shanghai - Traditional mahjong solitaire. This mode features the 12 puzzles from Shanghai III, each representing a different animal of the Chinese lunar calendar (with a cartoonish animal congratulating the player after solving each of them).

• Kong Kong - A two-player versus mode (either against a CPU opponent or against another linked player) where both players race to clear their game board first. This mode features power-up tiles that, when matched, can either hinder their opponent's progress or restore their timer (as "life").

• Gold Rush - A two-player versus mode (either against a CPU opponent or against another linked player) where both players race to find the "golden tile" somewhere in their game board.

Each of the three game modes utilize a countdown timer (which is player-based for Kong Kong and Gold Rush), which ends the game as a loss once its depleted. Shanghai mode can disable this timer in the easiest difficulty setting. The WonderSwan version adds a fourth game mode: Challenge, which times players on completing a series of stages (replacing the countdown timer with a standard count-up timer).