textfiles/games/REVIEWS/shang2.rev

 SHANGHAI II: DRAGON'S EYE

 A few years ago, when I first saw SHANGHAI in action, I never guessed how
successful this game would turn out to be. In fact it became such a big
blockbuster that it has been ported to many platforms. Even the Apple IIgs has
its own version. Now Activision, which published and distributed the original
game, has released SHANGHAI II. (This review is based on the IBM-PC version.)

 SHANGHAI II is actually two games in one. There's the original SHANGHAI game,
with a lot of bells and whistles added, and a second game called "Dragon's Eye,"
which uses very similar game mechanics but maintains a flavor all its own.
SHANGHAI II should prove impossible to resist for addicts of the original game,
and should likewise attract a considerable number of new fans.

 For the three people who have not seen the original SHANGHAI game, here's a
brief description: The game is played with a set of tiles. There are 36
different patterns in a set, with four tiles to each pattern, bringing the total
number of tiles in the set to 144. At the beginning of each game, the program
randomly places the tiles face up on a multilevel layout. The object of the game
is to remove tiles and clear the layout, a pair at a time.

 The tiles to be removed must be of the same pattern and they must be "free." A
tile is said to be free if there is no tile on top of it, and if at least one of
its right or left edges is not touching an adjacent tile. There are only a
couple of real strategies in playing SHANGHAI. Depending on the layout, some
tiles should be removed as early as possible because they're blocking a large
number of other tiles. Look out for and avoid "triplets" early in the game. A
triplet occurs when you have three free tiles of the same pattern. When it
becomes necessary to deal with a triplet, look ahead and decide which two tiles
to remove to provide the best future playability.

 SHANGHAI II has a total of 13 different layouts for you to choose from,
including the original SHANGHAI layout. The layouts are classified as easy,
advanced, or master, depending on how many strategic tiles you have to remove to
gain access to the center tiles. There is also an option to create your own
layout. This is very simple to learn, and I was really surprised at how much fun
it could be. I spent hours thinking up crazy schemes, and with multilevel
stacking, the possibilities are limitless. Indeed it is fairly easy to dream up
layouts that are totally impossible to solve. It is far more difficult to come
up with an interesting but playable design.

 The game also comes with eight different tile sets, including the famous
mah-jongg set. (I often wonder why there is a double "g" in "jongg." Something
got _added_ in the translation?) Some sets, such as "letters and numbers" and
"playing cards," are simple and effective. Other sets, such as "animals" and
"sports," are beautifully done, but rather busy-looking when trying to locate
matches. There are no provisions to design your own tiles. All in all, I prefer
the mah-jongg set. Old habits die hard, I suppose.

 For those players who feel that luck is too much of a factor in winning a game,
they can now choose the "Winnable Layout" option. It still requires good play,
sound strategy, and a bit of luck to win, but at least you are not facing a
losing battle from the start.

 The game will inform you whenever there are no more matches to be found. At
this point you can either start a new game, or you can select the "Shuffle
Remaining Tiles" option and try to continue with the current game. Then there
are the trusty old "Find a Match," "Take Back One Move," and "Peek" options to
_enhance_ game play. Note that using "Peek" requires that you forfeit the game.

 Dragon's Eye is a two-player game. You can play the role of either the Dragon
Slayer or the Dragon Master. If you are playing alone, the computer will be your
adversary. The game is played on a special cross-shaped layout. The middle eight
tiles of the cross represent the heart and limbs of the dragon, and are two
levels high. The remaining tiles are only single level. At the start of the
game, the program places eight tiles on the layout, covering the dragon's heart
and limbs. All _free_ tiles are placed face up, while all _blocked_ tiles are
inverted and their patterns invisible.

 The Dragon Slayer plays by removing matching tiles from the layout, especially
in the heart and limbs areas. If these areas are completed exposed, the dragon
is killed and the Dragon Slayer wins an outright victory. At the beginning of
each turn, the Dragon Slayer has six tiles in its hand. It may remove as many
matching pairs as it wishes during the turn. At least one tile in each matching
pair must be from the layout, and the same rules as in SHANGHAI apply. At any
time during its turn, if the Dragon Slayer has fewer than five tiles remaining,
it may draw new tiles and continue play. On the other hand, if it cannot remove
any tile from its hand during a turn, it must discard one of its tiles onto the
dragon layout to end the turn.

 The Dragon Master has a much simpler task. It has three tiles in its hand; it
places one tile onto the dragon layout each turn, and then draws a new tile. Its
goal is to build up the dragon completely. If the layout is filled and the
Dragon Slayer cannot make a move, then an outright victory is awarded to the
Dragon Master. It can place its tiles anywhere on the layout. The only
restriction is that the heart and limbs areas must be filled first if they are
exposed.

 There are more strategies involved in playing Dragon's Eye, especially if you
are the Dragon Slayer. You'll also need to remember the tiles placed on the
layout, as _blocked_ tiles are flipped over and remain so until they become free
again. Knowing which tiles have been eliminated is also very helpful in making
strategic decisions, such as which tile to place on the layout, and where. Even
so, Dragon's Eye is still a fairly simple game to play and luck (in this case,
the luck of the draw) still plays a big factor in the outcome of the game. I
tend to like it better than SHANGHAI.

 SHANGHAI II also includes a tournament mode. Tournament play is divided into
four rounds. Each round consists of one Dragon's Eye game and three SHANGHAI
games played on three different layouts, ranging from easy to master level.
Tournaments can be played either solitaire, or by two players in competition for
the highest score.

 The look and feel of the game is just about identical to the original SHANGHAI.
You are shown an overhead view of the layout and tiles, with your perspective
slightly to the left of vertical so that various levels of stacked tiles can be
distinguished. The tile sets are much prettier in VGA mode than in EGA, though
some sets are definitely easier to play with than others in either mode.

 Each tile set comes with its own short piece of repetitive music. Much of the
music is pleasant when played through a sound card. There are various sound
effects, as well as some short animations when tiles are removed. All of these
features can be toggled on or off from a Preference menu, so you can tailor the
game to your liking.

 The game requires 640K of RAM and DOS 3.0 or higher. (Indeed, if you're going
to play in VGA mode, you may want to remove most of your TSRs. I had 548K of
free RAM and still got an out-of-memory error at the end of the Dragon's Eye
game, when the program crashed back to DOS.) EGA, VGA (256 colors), and Tandy
16-colors are supported. SHANGHAI II will run with all major sound boards,
including Roland MT-32, LAPC-1, AdLib, Soundblaster, PS/1, and Tandy, as well as
the PC internal speaker. However, the reference card warns against running
_both_ the music and the sound effects through the AdLib at the same time. I
tried it, and I was very sorry I did.

 The package includes both 5-1/4" and 3-1/2" disks, a manual with lots of
pictures, and a six-page reference card that is rather confusing and has no
pictures. With the excellent online rules and strategy help, all this
documentation seems like overkill. There is no copy protection of any kind
(yes!), and mouse and joystick are supported. Playing this game using a mouse is
a wonderful experience; I wouldn't recommend any other way.

 Overall, there isn't much _not_ to like about SHANGHAI II. The game is very
pretty, and execution is nice and smooth. The Dragon's Eye game complements the
original SHANGHAI very well. The tournament mode is handy for some serious
competitive play. To all you SHANGHAI junkies out there, this is the upgrade you
have been waiting for all these years. With all the new options and 12 more
layouts, SHANGHAI has taken on a new dimension. For others who tried SHANGHAI
and thought it was too simplistic, take a look at Dragon's Eye and the
tournament mode. These two features may be just what Activision needs to win you
over.

 SHANGHAI II is published by Activision and distributed by Mediagenic.