You'd think that there wasn't much that could be done to make a mahjong game stand out, but 1001 Ultimate Mahjong goes the extra mile to make an impact. There are 5 tilesets to choose from, from the basic Japanese tiles, to bold numbers, to symbols of varying types and styles, to even a series of flags of the countries of the world. While 5 isn't a lot of tilesets, what's here is really good, with some being easy to spot and others being a good bit tougher. When you combine this with the fact that there are 1001 boards to complete (yes, it isn't just a name), you've got a lot to work through here.

You can also choose from 8 different colored H.U.D.'s with half being slick and the other half being a more fanciful design. Lastly, there are dozens of different backgrounds to select from, with some being nature-based, some looking like various nebulae and others being bold graphics. You can definitely fit your own style, although I wish that when you selected Random background, it would change out for each game for variety. Instead, it selects a background at random and stays on it until you back out.

In the audio department, there is no background music, so don't expect to hear anything other than the "tink" of your tiles vanishing and your board occasionally rearranging itself with a "whoosh" when you run out of moves. What's there is sparse, but pleasant.

If you have never played a game of mahjong before, first off, you are missing out. This ancient Japanese game of skill requires the player to look at a board filled with tiles and match two at a time to remove them. As you remove tiles, you reveal other tiles below and only tiles with a side not touching another tile can be removed. In other words, edge tiles and those that stand one layer above those tiles next to them.

Since the game is timed, or rather, has a constantly forward-ticking clock, you want to complete the board in as rapid a fashion as possible. The varying tilesets I mentioned earlier can help or hinder you because distinguishing the differences between large, clear numbers is much easier than say, a bunch of international flags, some of which look very similar or share colors and patterns.

In 1001 Ultimate Mahjong, there are literally 1001 different boards to try out, so you've got a lot of gameplay here. Yes, the gameplay is a bit redundant, but such is mahjong. The thrill comes in besting your own score and clearing boards quickly. There are 11 different categories that contain boards, with most containing 100 boards each. The kicker is that you can't simply skip around and see all of the boards. To open up each category, you must accomplish feats such as complete other boards, make a certain score, play for a certain length of time, and earn a certain amount of XP. Or you can take the easy way out and pay to unlock the additional categories, but where's the fun in that?

Personally, I didn't find 1001 Ultimate Mahjong to be difficult at all, but it was challenging. Some of the boards are really simple, being easily completed in a minute or two, whereas others might take 6-7 minutes. Swapping up tilesets can make things more or less difficult, as I mentioned earlier, so keep that in mind. What I did find difficult was being able wait until I opened up other categories (patience is not my strong suit), but I am not the type to buy my way to a quicker game completion, so I stuck it out. But then something really annoying happened - while I was playing with the settings to try out the different tilesets, backgrounds and HUDs, I accidentally tapped the red Game Reset button. Now, you would think that a button placed in the settings where you are changing all sorts of options would not reset all of the work you had previously done with one swipe, but alas, that is exactly what happened. To say that I was disappointed would be a great understatement. All of my best times were erased, along with the progress I had made, sort of. Specifically, areas that I had previously unlocked through hard work still show that I had completed, for instance, 39 of 100 boards in the Life group, but now that group is locked to me. This is a bit idiotic, as is the ability to erase your progress so quickly and accidentally. To be honest, when I saw the Reset button, I thought it was to reset all of the configuration changes I was making, but I soon discovered the difference.

If you have played one mahjong game, you have played them all, pretty much, and 1001 Ultimate Mahjong is no different. You finger tap to select a tile and remove it and that's about it. What makes 1001 Ultimate Mahjong stand out is the sheer number of boards you can play. I also really liked the options for changing your tilesets, though limited as they were. What I didn't like was the fact that most areas had pretty high completion requirements to get them to open up. I would have liked to have seen some of the later areas like the strangely named "WTF," but since you have to gather 10,000 XP to open it and I just wiped all of mine away, I don't see that happening too soon.

1001 Ultimate Mahjong is a great additional to your game library if you are a mahjong fan. It's too bad that the requirements for opening later levels are so stringent and that you can also easily buy your way to open each level, because it comes off as greedy on the part of the developer. I'm not saying that everything should be open from the get-go, but you could have them open a little more leniently than, say, complete a board in under 10 seconds, which is an actual requirement to unlock an area of boards.

In short, if you love mahjong, you'll really enjoy 1001 Ultimate Mahjong. Just be aware that you are buying a game that will open over time, if you are able to meet all of the requirements.