Dirtbag Mahjong is a well-rounded little game that's very personality-forward. This is a nice contrast to my first mahjong game, Kemono Mahjong: a slick, straightforward mahjong simulator. Dirtbag Mahjong, on the other hand, makes its characters a load-bearing part of the experience - and they hold up.

The cast of six have distinct personalities that bounce off of each other very naturally. Dialogue is blithe and snappy, constantly barbed but lighthearted. (The amount of table banter is solid, and it's always a delight when the scenario's specifics twist it.) The harebrained schemes and comically asinine bets that make up the story mode are quite funny, though they work better as one-off episodes than coherent narrative arcs.

The unlockable mahjong tiles and outfits are great - it's just a bit of a bummer that the outfits, by and large, only really feature in the Free Play mode... and there's not much incentive to play that. The story mode already gave me plenty of mahjong, and there's no other carrot to spend significant time with Free Play (e.g. something to unlock; unseen novelty). I also found myself scratching my head at the ability to end story mode games after any round. Given that objectives are often to end a round either with more than the starting value of points or placed above a certain character, it meant you could complete the game after a successful first round, rather than weather ensuing rounds trying to hold onto your lead. This makes the game significantly easier, but it also made it shorter... which may have been in its favor, keeping the experience short and sweet. This wasn't communicated as unintentional or a cop-out, so I made liberal use of it. An appropriately dirtbag strategy, perhaps!

All in all, Dirtbag Mahjong was a great second mahjong game. I wonder if it would be good for a beginner looking to learn mahjong - I worry that the dirtbag abilities could be overwhelming, but the tutorial text is well-presented, difficulty options can worsen opponent AI, and a couple characters' story modes don't ask the player to win to progress. (I would, however, hesitate to recommend it to friends with poor eyesight - the tiles' numbers were *very* hard to read on my laptop screen.) Still, I'm excited to see what's next from this developer. Their comedic character writing skills are strong, and they did a great job adding an extra mechanical layer to mahjong. And this is an easy recommendation for anyone looking for a cozy single-player mahjong game.

7/10 ❤