Mahjong Kings and Knights

Cubes, not flat tiles, are the pieces in Mahjong Kings and Knights, and every cube carries artwork on all six of its sides. The board is three-dimensional, so a match can be waiting on a face turned away from you, and reading an arrangement means thinking about depth as well as position.

The setting is medieval: princesses, knightly armour and royal accessories decorate the faces. Seventy-five levels follow one another, each with a time limit of two minutes and twenty-five seconds, a tight allowance once the stacks get deep and the reason the game rewards remembering where pieces are. The Dimensions 350 Seconds block asks for the same spin-first, match-second order.

Matching itself is simple. Select two identical tiles that are highlighted as free and they leave the board. Anything not highlighted is blocked, so the highlighting is the fastest guide to which part of the structure is actually workable. For the rule in plain words, see Mahjong Dimensions Tips.

The original was built in Flash and may not behave correctly on every device. It is driven with a mouse and supports full screen, which is the sensible way to play a board where you have to judge which cube face sits in front of which. A second three-dimensional layout here is the Emoji block.

1. Look over the three-dimensional stack and note which cubes are highlighted as free.
2. Select two highlighted cubes showing the same medieval symbol to remove them.
3. Take the top of the structure first so the faces below become visible.
4. Clear the level inside its two-minute-twenty-five-second allowance to reach the next of the seventy-five stages.

• Trust the highlighting — in Mahjong Kings and Knights an unhighlighted cube is blocked, however exposed it looks.
• Memorise repeat positions — remembering where a knightly helm sat saves seconds you cannot spare on a timer this short.
• Strip the upper layers — every cube taken from the top reveals several faces at once.
• Plan two moves ahead — with seventy-five levels waiting, looking one match beyond the obvious pays for itself.
• Play in full screen — depth on a cube board is far easier to judge at full size.