Bang Bang Mahjong

Bang Bang Mahjong is not a stacked board at all. Feig Ltd. crossed the tile-matching idea with a sliding puzzle, so the pieces are pushed around the grid before they are paired, and position is something you create rather than something you are dealt. The rules written for a first game covers where those rules come from.

The opening levels look almost trivial, which is the trap. As the layouts grow, each slide costs an option somewhere else, and a piece nudged into a corner can be as good as removed. The matching itself stays simple, two identical tiles taken together, but the arrangement that makes a match possible is your work. Another entry from the same shelf is Mahjong Around The World Africa.

Three power-ups cover the moments when the grid stops cooperating: a shuffle to redeal it, a remove for a piece that is genuinely in the way, and a hint when the next pairing is not obvious. Every level completed raises the difficulty of the one after it. The Fruit Connect 3 layout keeps company with this board in the catalogue.

1. Look over the grid and decide which pieces have to move before anything can pair.
2. Slide the tiles into position, keeping the routes to the ones you want open.
3. Match two identical tiles to clear them from the grid.
4. Spend a shuffle, a remove or a hint when the layout stalls, then finish the level to unlock a harder one.

• Plan the slide, not the pair — in Bang Bang Mahjong the match is easy and the positioning is the actual puzzle.
• Keep the corners clear — a piece pushed into one is difficult to bring back into play.
• Hold the remove power-up for a tile that is blocking a whole chain, not for the first awkward one.
• Expect the ramp — every level completed tightens the next, so habits from the opening boards stop working.