Like Shanghai pocket on the color scheme boy game, Shanghai mini on the war is a hand-crafted rendition of Activision's classic Shanghai puzzle game. Which Shanghai? Well, in an extremely basic description, if you take jongg mah tiles, stack them into different shapes, and then challenge yourself to remove all pairs of tiles from the field, this is Shanghai. The only way you will be able to get rid of the tile is the exposed pair of tiles that can move freely to the left or right ¿ in other words, if they are wedged into the place of the tile to the right and to the left, then you cannot remove them. Once you remove the tiles, you can work your way into the pile ¿ clear the entire pile with nothing left and you've won the round.
The War version of the game is very similar to the game Boy Color Edition. So close, in fact, that some of the same graphic sheets were borrowed from the game's boy version. In some cases, more detailed tiles look better on the Game Boy Color version¿ but once you know what you're seeing, you'll get used to a few pixels trying to depict a bird or a season.
Unique to the series is the tournament mode. Here, you are in a "quest" that challenges 12 different opponents, each with his or her own layout to decide. In Standard Mode you have the option of rearranging tiles when you don't have a step left and you're not racing. But in tournament mode, you have to win a certain amount of time, and you can't pick up moves after you've pulled them off the board. Run out of moves or time and you've lost. Luckily, the game has a password that will get you back into the tournament when you're gone. Strangely, Shanghai mini is one of the first war games with a saving feature, without a battery cartridge. Is it indicitive of SNK to cut corners?
Another great two-player challenge mode ¿ You can go up against a computer or human opponent (with a different system, a different copy of the game, and a cable connection) in a single player game where you both work on the same layout. The catch is, there is a tile in there that will cause the other person grief if they match two tiles together. There are tiles that will force the other person's layout to shuffle, scramble or flip for a few seconds, other tiles that will force his cursor to go in the opposite direction he's moving, and even one that puts three pairs back on his layout. This adds more "twist the opponent" factor into quieter games.
- Three game modes
- Save password
- Connecting cable support two players
- For Neogeo Pocket Color