a pogo.com fansite and blog
From the category archives:
It’s been almost a year since Pogo has had a special weekend challenge (the last one was — if we recall correctly — mid-April last year, for Mahjong Garden using the then-new tileset), so when we caught wind of a Special Edition badge for KenoPop!, we were all atwitter wondering whether or not it’d be for a special weekend challenge. Either way, a Special Edition badge for KenoPop! is coming soon; it features the same graphics as in the game.
The two secret badges have (finally) been added to Mahjong Safari with today’s maintenance cycle. Here’s the scoop on how to get them:
Matchmaker Badge: Match 50,000 tiles
Gift Giver Badge: Give 1,000 gifts
Good luck!
Here are some hints and tips for Mahjong Safari that we have come up with since its release a week ago:
• The secret badges don’t seem to be in the game yet. For more information on that, see our previous post about Mahjong Safari’s secret badges.
• If you can, play on Hard mode — you will get 4 safari animal sets to match per game (3 in Normal, 2 in Easy). When you quit out of the game, it will currently reset itself to easy mode, so be sure to take a look at what mode you are on when you first open a room.
• Match all of the same animal tiles (two matches, four tiles total) in order to get a 30 token bonus.
• You may need to adjust your screen resolution in order to see the tiles better. We prefer this game on 800×600 on our laptop screens!
• You will get more tokens by matching tiles in rapid succession. These are called “Combos”. The more Combos you make, the higher your score and therefore you’ll get higher tokens at the end of the game. (You get one token per 100 points of score.)
• When you match a mini-animal, a large graphic of that animal will appear. To quickly dismiss the graphic, click (or right-click) anywhere on the screen and it’ll disappear and you may continue playing.
• Check out the tilesets available as well as the animal tiles you have received from ranking up. Some may be easier for you to see than others and the easier they are to see, the faster you can match them. Matching faster brings in more tokens and more ranks!
• Early on, try to match the star tiles. Clearing these out will give you one of each kind of powerup to use later in the game. Powerups will help you continue if you run out of matches.
• Use the Long Line powerup to both increase your score and delay the need to use a Shuffle. You will lose your powerups at the end of each puzzle, so use them if you need them.
• In order to get a time bonus, solve the puzzle within 3 minutes on Hard mode.
• If you really want to rank up fast and don’t care about earning tokens, hit New Game as soon as you’ve matched all of the mini-animals in the puzzle.
During the development of Mahjong Safari, we’d reported that there were going to be two special badges along with the five game award/rank badges when the game was released. However, we’ve heard from several people who have played well beyond the requirements of 50,000 matches (for the ladybug tile badge) and 1,000 gifts (for the gift-wrapped package badge) and have not received the special badges.
The two badges are physically located on Pogo’s public web site now (see above) and the rules for Mahjong Safari online still mention secret badges, so we can only assume that either Pogo didn’t have time to put them in the game before release (and that they do not currently exist — and may never exist), or that the badge requirements have been adjusted much, much higher.
If you get one of these badges, please let us know, and if we figure this out, we’ll keep you informed!
Poppit! - 2008 Easter Limited Edition Badge
Use a “pin” or “weight” power-up 30 times in 3 days! (Finish the game to check your progress.)
Bingo Luau - Hula Festival Badge
Get a Bingo on a Green Card in 5 days!
Dominoes - Double Pair Badge
Play a “double 2″ domino 22 times in 2 weeks!
High Stakes Pool - Park Bench Badge
Win 3 games IN A ROW in 3 weeks!
Pogo Bowl - Bowling Night Badge
Knock down 500 pins in 5 days! (Your pins are counted after you complete each game.)
Rainy Day Spider Solitaire - Rainbow Swing Badge
Win 2 games on HARD difficulty level in 10 days!
Tri-Peaks Solitaire - Temple of the Sun Badge
Clear 30 “peaks” in 30 minutes or less! (Peaks are the top 3 cards in each hand.)
We meant to tell you about this earlier, but it somehow slipped through our fingers! Please forgive us!
For the week of March 26, get ready for another super badge challenge!
Win 3 Challenge Badges between March 26 and April 1!
(This includes personal and Premium Challenges!)
The reward badge is an excellent animated April Fool’s joke — “Click here for 999 billion tokens!” This incites snickers all around, but for completing the super badge challenge, at least you’ll get 3,000 tokens and the badge…at least.
The How to Play help pages for Mahjong Safari have been written. It’s a version of Mahjong Connect (or Connect 2) that requires you to match tiles by connecting pieces with a line of two or fewer turns (bends).
The game will have 50 ranks, 5 in-game rank badges, and two secret badges (which aren’t much of a secret to those of us in the know). At each rank you’ll receive a rank tile displayed in your game window, and you’ll receive another tile to add to your collection. You’ll rank up not by winning a game, but by receiving jackpot spins at the end of your game — jackpot spins are awarded when you collect 10 mini-animals. On easy mode you receive 2 mini-animals per game, normal gives 3, and hard mode gives you 4 mini-animals per game; however there are more tiles on the board at higher difficulty modes.
This game will be available to Club Pogo members and non-Club members as well. It’ll be a nice addition to Pogo’s already-massive collection of Mahjong-style games.
The Ali Baba Slots makeover is almost done — the artwork for the game has been created and the artwork for the badges is all set. The badges will be awarded at ranks 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50. There may also be a special in-game award badge, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet. Considering the game is based on the same “engine” as Spooky Slots (so it won’t need much beta testing — if any) and that the artwork and how to play appear to be done, this game may be out faster than anyone expected!
With respect to the Easter Limited Edition Badge we told you about a few days ago, we’ve got details on the challenge. It’ll be in Poppit! You’ll have to use a “pin” or “weight” power-up 30 times in 3 days. The badge will cost 22 gems and you will win 3,000 tokens when you complete it.
As we reported earlier, Mahjong Safari will have two ’special’ badges in addition to the five game award badges. You can receive one of them for making 50,000 matches of tiles and the other for giving 1,000 gifts to other players (gifts, like in Word Search Daily). The 50,000 matches badge shows a ladybug tile and the 1,000 gifts one is a present wrapped up in animal-print paper and tied with a bow.
