Mahjong Trails Game
From the makers of Mahjong Trails, the world's most popular mahjong game, Mahjong Trails Match brings the fun to mobile in an ALL-NEW game!
Mahjong Trails is a great Facebook take on mahjong that upsells just a little too much
Mahjong Trails applies the formula currently popular for Facebook puzzle games to the old computer puzzle version of mahjong. The game contains several areas, each with a variety of different tile layouts. The rules of the game are the same as always, simply asking users to match all of the tiles before five minutes is up or before it becomes impossible to match more tiles. The game usually offers players one free reshuffle of the tiles, but it’s not long before levels become very difficult to clear within the time limit. The real point of Mahjong Trails is to amass a higher score than all of your friends who play the game.
The visuals in Mahjong Trails are competent enough, but understandably basic. You can purchase backgrounds for the mahjong levels, with the tiles themselves otherwise adding most of the visual interest to the gameplay. Since Mahjong Trails is timed, the game actually awards you more points per match if you play with tile sets that it considers more challenging. For instance, in the basic set it’s very easy to tell all of the various times apart, but later you unlock a more difficult tile set where the icons are simply different types of animal footprints rendered in a single color.
An interesting feature of Mahjong Trails is that you don’t actually have to beat a level in order to move on to play the next one. The game offers rewards to players who try to clear every level, replay levels to beat their high scores, or just play levels until they can beat their friends’ high scores. Still, how you play the game is ultimately up to you. This keeps any particular level from growing stale or feeling excessively hard. Levels you’ve already beaten have some replay value, as it’s worth your while to replay them once you’ve unlocked or purchased more valuable sets of mahjong tiles.
A downside to Mahjong Trails is how you unlock new sets of levels. The game has a world map that’s divided into different areas named after real-world locations, like North America or Europe. Each area contains so many new levels you can play. Unlocking new levels requires that you have so many friends invited into your game or that you pay for them using cash-based virtual currency. You can earn enough as bonuses to pay for early regions, but eventually you will be forced to either spend money or spam invites at your friend list.
In general, the biggest problem with Mahjong Trails is how aggressive the game is about wanting to get you to spend money. From the first level you can buy the best tile sets in the game for $5 or $10 each. Every background costs real money, leaving you with the default if you don’t want to spend. Eventually you may have to pay just to get more levels. Mahjong Trails is otherwise an excellent social version of mahjong that is well worth the time of any fan of the game. It’s just hard not to be put off by the feeling that the game is desperately trying to squeeze money out of you.
| Private | |
| Industry | video games, social network service |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2009 |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Henning Kosmack, CEO Mark Gazecki, Chairman |
| 55[1] (2020) | |
| Website | http://www.megazebra.com/ |
MegaZebra is a game development company located in Munich, Germany.[2]The company develops free-to-play games for social networks like Facebook and mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. As of July 2018, the company employs 55 people.[3]
History[edit]
MegaZebra pioneered the social gaming space in Europe in late 2008.[4] Behind MegaZebra is the team around Henning Kosmack (CEO) and Mark Gazecki (Chairman).[5]Since then, MegaZebra developed several cross-platform games for mobile devices and social networks like Facebook.[6]
In September 2009 the company got backed by the founders of Web.de through Kizoo Technology Ventures.[7]
In some cases you can use the teleport scroll to make the timing better. First you have to be able to beat the baddies and second the teleporter is hitting just right. 
If you hit it correctly you can go through; two factors here.
With Mahjong Trails[8] they launched their first game, reaching more than two million monthly players in January 2011.[9] Today the game has still more than 2 million monthly active players.[6]
In March 2011 MegaZebra raised ‘multiple millions Euros’ [10] in a second round of funding, led by Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures. Furthermore, Kizoo Technology Ventures participated again, alongside private investor Markus Stolz.[11]
With Gaute Godager, founder of Funcom, and Jürgen Goeldner, two Gaming veterans joined the company`s board of directors in January 2012.[12]
Both have a long-standing experience in the gaming sector. Apart from Goeldner and Godager, the MegaZebra board consists of Nigel Grierson from Doughty Hanson, Matthias Hornberger from Atevia, and Mark Gazecki of the founders.[13]
MegaZebra launched its second hit game Solitaire Castle in late 2011. Following in the footsteps of Mahjong Trails, it reached more than 1.5 million monthly active users in October 2012.[14] and reached more the 2 million user per month in January 2013.[6]
1 year later MegaZebra launched Suburbia, which reached 2 million MAU in early 2014. With Suburbia, MegaZebra was the first company to combine episodic, TV-style content with simulation game mechanics. but you can only complete up to episode 5 episode 6 has been in development for about 4 years[15]
MegaZebra’s latest game Solitaire Chronicles is the first cross-platform title, that is available on the web and on mobile devices. Recently it won the Tabby Award in the category Best iPad game: Cards, Casino and Dice.[16]
Figures[edit]
According to AppData, in January 2011 MegaZebra is one of the top 25 fastest growing developers on Facebook,[17] reaching almost 4 million monthly users and is with more than half a million daily active users,[18] among the Top 3 European developers in terms of daily active users.
With Mahjong Trails and Solitaire Castle, MegaZebra has now two games exceeding the 2 million monthly active user mark.[6]
Awards[edit]
In 2015 Solitaire Chronicles, the first mobile game of the company, won the Tabby Award for the category “Best iPad game: Cards, Casino and Dice”.[16]
Games[edit]
References[edit]
- ^Fröhlich, Petra (10 January 2020). 'Die größten Spiele-Entwickler in Deutschland 2020' [The largest game developers in Germany 2020]. GamesWirtschaft (in German).
- ^'Company Profile MegaZebra.' Retrieved from Crunchbase, on January 22, 2011.
- ^'Deutschlands größte Spielehersteller 2018'. GamesWirtschaft (in German). 2 July 2018.
- ^'MegaZebra Profile.' Retrieved from Venturebeat, on February 3, 2011.
- ^'About MegaZebra.' Retrieved from MegaZebra, on January 27, 2011.
- ^ abcd'Developer Profile: MegaZebraArchived 2013-01-18 at the Wayback Machine.' Retrieved from AppStats.eu, on January 18, 2013.
- ^'Social Gaming Roundup from September 18, 2009.' Retrieved from InsideSocialGames, on January 11, 2011.
- ^'MegaZebra`s Mahjong Trails brings Tile-based action to Facebook.' Retrieved from InsideSocialGames, on January 20, 2011.
- ^'MahjongTrails.' Retrieved from All Facebook Statistics, on January 17, 2011.
- ^'MegaZebra On Ad Spend, Localization and Facebook-Only Development.' Retrieved from InsideSocialGames, on May 25, 2011.
- ^'Facebook games developer MegaZebra closes ‘multi-million’ euro funding round.' Retrieved from TechCrunch, on May 24, 2011.
- ^'MegaZebra appoints Godager and Goeldner to board.' Retrieved from InsideSocialGames, on January 24, 2012.
- ^'MegaZebra signs Godager and Goeldner as Board Members.' Retrieved from Social Games Observer on January 25, 2012.
- ^'/ Solitaire CastleArchived 2012-11-12 at the Wayback Machine.' Retrieved from AppStats.eu on October 30, 2012.
- ^'Henning Kosmack Finds The Fun In The Media Battle.' Retrieved from gamesauce.org on August 6, 2015.
- ^ ab'Tabby Award Winners 2015.' Retrieved from tabbyawards.com on August 6, 2015.
- ^'Top Gainer of the weekArchived 2011-07-26 at the Wayback Machine.' Retrieved from AppData, on January 26, 2011.
- ^'[1]Archived 2013-01-16 at Archive.today.' Retrieved from AppData, on May 25, 2011.