Mahjong Express

Agame says very little about Mahjong Express, and what it does say concerns mood rather than mechanics: a soothing board to unwind with. The build backs that up in an unexpected way, through its size. The whole list is kept in the Best New shelf.

At 680 by 460 this is the most compact frame in the current batch, smaller than the 800-pixel standard most tile games here are drawn at. A small canvas forces a small board, which in practice means fewer tiers and a layout you can take in without panning your eyes across it. Boards of this kind usually reward that: the shorter the stack, the more of the puzzle is visible at once. Working the covered edges first pays in Sunset as well.

Nothing further about the rules is stated, so treat it as a plain tile game to sit with rather than one to be studied. Mahjong Frenzy piles the tiles into a different silhouette.

1. Open the compact board and look over the whole layout, which fits in a single glance at this size.
2. Find two tiles carrying the same face.
3. Select one, then the other, to take the pair off — boards of this kind clear in twos.
4. Work the stack down until the layout is empty.

• Sit close to the small frame — 680 by 460 renders tile faces at a scale that is easier lost than on a wide board.
• Take the whole layout in first — the compact canvas is an advantage, since no corner of it is out of view.
• Do not rush a calm board — Agame pitched this one as something to unwind with, and it does not reward speed-clicking.
• Enlarge it if the faces blur — full screen stretches the smallest frame here up to a readable size.