Mahjong Candy

The board in Mahjong Candy is built tall rather than wide: 351 by 624 pixels, a phone-shaped column of wrapped sweets, jellies and lollipops.

Pairs go when you click two identical candies, and a piece has to be free before it can be taken, with at least one long side clear and nothing resting on top. That restriction is what turns a heap of sweets into a puzzle, because the candy you want is usually pinned by the two beside it. Peeling the top of a stack is therefore worth more than taking the easiest pair on the rim. Marine Mahjong sits beside this one among the layered boards.

A timer covers the whole board. BestGamesFreePlay.com built it as a speed exercise: clear every candy before the clock empties, then go again and try to do it faster. Hints and a shuffle are on hand when the free sweets stop pairing. The Dream Pet Link board is filed under the same heading here.

The portrait frame means the 2019 build sits comfortably on a phone held upright, and on a desktop full screen stops that tall column from occupying a narrow strip of a wide monitor. For a board of the same kind, see the Sheep Sheep board.

1. Look down the tall board for two candies with the same wrapper.
2. Check that each is free, with nothing on top and at least one long side unblocked.
3. Click both sweets to remove the pair.
4. Use a hint or a shuffle when no free candies match.
5. Clear the board before the timer runs out, then replay it for a faster time.

• Peel the stack from the top — candies underneath cannot be taken while anything rests on them.
• Mind the long sides — in a portrait board like Mahjong Candy the sides that matter are the left and right edges of each row.
• Shuffle rather than stall — when the free sweets no longer pair, a reshuffle costs less than the seconds burned searching.
• Save hints for the tail — the last few candies are the hardest to spot once most of the column has gone.
• Use full screen on a desktop — a 351-pixel-wide board is tiny in a browser window and full screen scales it up.