Microsoft Mahjong

Microsoft’s tile game arrived with Windows in 2012, and this version keeps its shape: you choose a layout and a visual theme from the main menu before a single tile is touched. The themes are not decoration alone, since some tile sets read far more clearly than others, and swapping to a plainer one is a genuine difficulty setting.

Over forty puzzles come with it, and a daily challenge sits alongside them on its own schedule, which gives regulars a fixed board to return to rather than another random deal. Working the covered edges first pays in the Zoo Deluxe board as well.

There is no clock. Nothing counts down while you study the stack, which puts the whole of the difficulty into layout shape: the tall pagoda arrangements bury far more tiles than the flat ones, and a careless early match can seal a pair under three layers. Butterfly Kyodai HD is catalogued beside this board.

A hint and a shuffle are on hand when a board dries up, and both are best kept back, since these puzzles are built to be solvable and a hint spent early usually shows a pair you would have found on the next sweep. Full screen is the way to take on the larger layouts, and the soundtrack is quiet enough to leave running. The Aquatic Triple board builds the layers into another arrangement.

1. Pick a layout and a tile theme from the opening menu.
2. Find two identical tiles that are uncovered and free on the left or the right.
3. Click them in turn to lift the pair off the board.
4. Keep going until the stack is empty and the puzzle is solved.
5. Come back for the daily challenge when you want a board everyone else is playing too.

• Choose a plain theme — the decorative tile sets are handsome and slow, and the menu lets you trade beauty for legibility.
• Clear the crown of the pagoda — the tiles on top gate everything beneath them.
• Count the copies before matching — with four of a kind on the board, taking the wrong two can lock the other pair away.
• Use the daily challenge as practice — it deals the same board to everyone, so a second attempt measures your reading rather than your luck.
• Save the shuffle — with no clock running there is always room for one more careful scan first.