Blue Mahjong HD

Before the first tile in Blue Mahjong HD you make two choices: a theme, from fruits, classic or modern, and one of six layouts ordered by how hard they are to unpick.

From there the rule is the solitaire one rather than the linking one. Match open pairs of identical tiles, take them off, and the pieces that sat underneath become available in turn. One more board of that sort is the Winter board.

A board ends in one of two ways: every pair removed, or no exposed pairs left. New Kids Games is explicit about the second, which is worth knowing, because a dead board here is a real outcome rather than a fault, and the layout you picked is what decides how likely it is. One more board from the same group is the Valentines Love Link grid.

Hints and an undo soften that. Undo matters most on the harder layouts, since one careless pair can bury the tile you needed. The 2022 build is 960 by 680 and mouse-driven, and full screen gives the fruit theme enough room that a plum stops reading as a cherry. The Butterfly Kyodai Deluxe 2 board stands next to this one in the same list.

1. Choose a theme and one of the six layouts.
2. Find two identical tiles that are exposed rather than covered.
3. Remove the pair, which uncovers whatever was underneath.
4. Use undo if a match closes off a tile you needed.
5. Keep going until the board is empty, or until no exposed pairs remain.

• Pick the layout, not just the theme — the six arrangements in Blue Mahjong HD differ in difficulty, and the hardest are the ones that end in a dead board.
• Keep undo in reserve — one careless pair can bury the tile you needed, and undo is the only way back.
• Uncover before you tidy — a pair that exposes two new tiles beats a pair that only shortens a row.
• Switch themes if the tiles blur — fruits, classic and modern draw the same layout with very different faces.
• Full screen the 960-by-680 board — the fruit tiles in particular rely on small differences of colour.