Update: Images pulled at request of developer, until launch day
The veteran Mac developers at Ambrosia Software have announced their first iPhone game already well into development. Ambrosia is bringing their Aki Mahjong Solitaire game to Apple’s new mobile platform. A desktop version of Aki is presently available as a $20 shareware application for the Macintosh.
Ambrosia’s first game for the iPhone elegantly blends the ancient Chinese game of Mahjong with an enchanting journey across Japan. It’s a modern fusion of two ancient Asian cultures, and is as much an experience as it is a game. Aki is easy to learn even if you still haven’t mastered chopsticks, so don’t hesitate to dive right in. We think you’ll soon find yourself captivated.
The goal of Aki Mahjong Solitaire is to remove all the tiles on the board by matching identical tiles within the allotted time. Tiles, however, can only be selected if they are unblocked on either side by other tiles.
Ambrosia takes advantage of the iPhone’s Core Animation to provide smooth tile animations and a Cover Flow interface for selecting levels.
Aki Mobile Mahjong is presently in late beta testing and will be priced at $9.99.
Ambrosia’s founder Andrew Welch shared with us his thoughts about iPhone gaming and their approach to Aki. Welch explained, “My basic philosophy for iPhone games is that they should be casual games you can pick up and play on a whim, and dismiss as quickly to take that phone call you’ve been waiting for." Welch describes that when you hit the Home Button on the iPhone during the game the state is saved so that you can return to the exact spot you left.
“We didn’t just port Aki to the iPhone, we rewrote it around the idea of playing the game on a mobile device", concludes Welch.
A video of the gameplay and more screenshots can be seen in Ambrosia’s media gallery. We’ve embedded a YouTube version here:
It looks promising. It could be particularly good, or it could be bad. Anyhow, I hope it does not have a monthly subscription because I would definitely not pay for it.
I'm still iritated at Vay so hopefully this will be good.
I can't see a monthly subscription though. I hope not at least.
It looks good... But that could be deceiving. It all depends on the gameplay. Vay is a good concept, but its hard to move around in particular. (It's also not a perfect port... some of it appears to have changed)
Also, how much are they going to charge for it? $5-$10 is reasonable, but it they try and get to much no ones going to bite.
Looks good, I'm looking forward to this game (provided they clean up the English translation.) I've always been a fan of these kind of RPG's, I played them to death on my SNES, Genesis, Sega CD, and Playstation. My favorite is easily Phantasy Star IV.
Have to agree with Balagan. For nostalgia value Vay is novel but modern RPG's are better. Have high hopes for this.
An mmorpg would be great to have.
The graphics still don't look very impressive...Vay is understandable because it's an old game but I still figured the iPhone was capable of more. I'd personally like to see something closer to RuneScape.
>The graphics still don’t look very impressive…Vay is understandable because >it’s an old game but I still figured the iPhone was capable of more. I’d >personally like to see something closer to RuneScape.
I'll never understand why people are so snobbish about 2d graphics. I'd much prefer some nicely drawn 2d sprites than some muddy misshapen polygons.
Wonder what happened to this project, looks like they cancelled it? I went to their official website but the archive after being long outdated has now disappeared only to be Not Found. I was so looking forward to this RPG! That's the only real thing that iPhone lacks is a good RPG, not some ported game from a console years ago-
I love this game i recommend it to all my freinds. Excavation Calgary