Mahjong Garden

Mahjong Garden is one of the few boards in this category that states its terms plainly. GamePush advertises no time limits and a full-screen presentation, which makes it a different proposition from the timed link boards sitting next to it. The Connect shelf carries the other boards of this kind.

The rule is a sequence rather than a lone pair, since identical chips have to be connected in a certain order before they disappear from the field, and the oriental garden setting is treated as part of the point. Unlocking new tile faces and new backgrounds is the progression, so playing well is rewarded with a board that looks different rather than with a bigger number. Another entry from the same shelf is the Twins layout.

Without a clock, the pressure shifts entirely onto reading the field. GamePush frames the board as training for logic and visualisation, with every move meant to be strategic; in practice that means clearing order is the only thing that can lose you a field. It runs at 800 by 600 and takes taps as well as clicks. Story 2 occupies the neighbouring slot in the catalogue.

1. Open the board in full screen so the garden art and the chip faces stay readable.
2. Find two identical chips that can be connected on the field.
3. Link them in turn so the pair disappears.
4. Clear the field and put the progress towards new tile sets and backgrounds.

• Take the full-screen option — Mahjong Garden is built for it, and the garden backdrops only read properly at full size.
• No clock means plan first — with no time limit running, mapping the field before the opening connection costs you nothing.
• Unlock for variety, not power — the new tiles and backgrounds change how the field looks, which matters when a familiar layout comes round again.
• Clear the crowded middle early — chips boxed in by neighbours are the ones that strand a field, and no timer is forcing a shortcut.