Yakuman DS

Yakuman DS is a mahjong game for the Nintendo DS produced by Nintendo. Yakuman DS is based on the Chinese game Mahjong, featuring various Mario characters. The game was released in 2005 by Nintendo. One year later, Nintendo released the game again with an online mode, with the name of Wi-Fi Taiō Yakuman DS. Neither version of the game was released outside Japan.

Playable

 * Mario
 * Luigi
 * Yoshi
 * Toad
 * Princess Peach
 * Donkey Kong

The Opponents
The difficulty of each opponent is shown in the game with stars; The more stars that opponent has, the harder he/she is. Every opponent has different stats of Attack (Effort on winning the hand), Luck, Skill (Good strategy), Speed (Speed on declaring ron (ロン) or tsumo (ツモ)and Defense (Effort on preventing others to win). They all have different AI, and their style of play is described briefly behind the character's picture in the upper screen (while in the character selection screen). The opponents are: Naturally, the character the player has chosen will not be available as an opponent.
 * Goomba: 1 Star. Still doesn't understand mahjong very well but he may sometimes win the game.
 * Princess Daisy: 3 Stars. She will try to use riichi to add an extra yaku and also do a closed tsumo. She will always look for a win.
 * Shy Guy: 1 Star. He will try to win by melding.
 * Koopa Troopa: 2 Stars. Being a very aggresive opponent, he will try to win as fast as possible. He likes Chii and Pon.
 * Boo: 3 Stars. Thinking on a skillful way to win, he will end up having good amounts of yaku.
 * Birdo: 3 Stars. She will play almost in a balanced way, but she has skill as her best stat.
 * Diddy Kong: 3 Stars. With a main intention on doing Chiitoitsu (Seven Pairs), he will find many ways to win.
 * Toad: 2 Stars. He will get tenpai (Near victory) and declare riichi when he is able to do so. He will keep dora tiles to boost his yaku.
 * Princess Peach: 3 Stars. Her main intentions are not to win, but to prevent losing. She will never declare riichi.
 * Mario: 4 Stars. He will either try to win or prevent to lose depending on the situation.
 * Luigi: 3 Stars. At his own pace he will get waiting in some tiles and declare riichi.
 * Yoshi: 3 Stars. His speed is his strongest stat. He will never declare riichi.
 * Donkey Kong: 4 Stars. Very commonly he will aim for a powerful Chinitsu or Honitsu hand (A single suit).
 * Toadette: 4 Stars. She will put all her efforts on winning and has very good speed.
 * Toadsworth (secret character): 5 Stars. He will look at all the odds and will prevent at all costs losing a hand. He's hardly Furikomi (Opponents rarely declare "ron" on him).
 * Wario (secret character): 5 Stars. According to his stats, he will do whatever he can to win the round, and also get a good score if he does.
 * Waluigi (secret character): 4 Stars. Being the speediest character in all the game, he can win rounds very quickly.
 * Petey Piranha (secret character): 5 Stars. Petey Piranha is a very skillful opponent and will try to boost the yaku on his hand as much as possible.
 * Bowser (secret character): 5 Stars. In his strong way of playing, he will try to boost the hand's yaku and win quickly.
 * Bowser Jr.: 4 Stars. He will skillfully wait in an unexcepted tile.

Other characters

 * Lakitu (hosts the tutorial mode of the game and provides in-game hints and advice)

Play Mode

 * Free mode- In free mode the player can freely choose CPU opponents to play against, The players can use their own rules.
 * Challenge mode- Win by fulfilling a given set of conditions with a given set of opponents. Easy, normal, hard and expert challenges are available, with Wario and Waluigi being unlocked after completing all the Easy challenges, Petey Piranha unlocked after completing all the normal ones, Bowser unlocked after completing all the hard ones and Toadsworth unlocked after completing all the expert ones.
 * Ranking mode- The character chosen starts at rank 20. They play against the other characters to ascend and possibly become rank 1 (top 3 opponents are Petey Piranha, Bowser, and Toadsworth in ascending order). Note that the ranking system works by winning points from beating other players; thus, the top opponents do not need to be unlocked in order to ascend above them.
 * Local multiplayer- A game for multiple players (up to 4), all within range of the DS wireless radio, DS Download play is available.
 * Online multiplayer- Like online multiplayer for other DS games, with the same Friend Code system. Voice chat is available.

References to Other Games

 * Mario Kart Double Dash!! - Most of the characters' voices are taken from this game.
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Yakuman DS is mentioned in Toadsworth's trophy.

Trivia

 * The game is named after the rare winning hands (役満/Yakuman) that are worth 32000 (48000 if east/dealer).