Christmas Mahjong Connection 2020

Baubles, candy canes, wreaths and wrapped presents cover the tiles in Christmas Mahjong Connection 2020, with festive backgrounds behind the grid on every level.

A pair leaves when the line drawn between two matching tiles bends twice or fewer, always at right angles. Simple to state, harder to hold in your head once the grid fills the 900-by-600 frame and half the routes are blocked by tiles you have not cleared yet. The December dressing returns in the Christmas Connect board.

The clock matters in this one. Each level has to be emptied before time runs out, and the levels grow harder as they go, so the early boards are where you build the speed the later ones demand. The rules behind it are laid out in the comparison of the two boards.

A hint points out one available pair and a shuffle rearranges what is left, and both are worth saving. Full screen is the other practical help, because several ornaments differ only in the pattern painted on the same round shape, and that difference disappears in a small window. Among Float Connect belongs to the same easy-going list.

1. Find two tiles carrying the same festive symbol.
2. Follow the route between them, where two right-angle bends is the limit and no other tile may sit on the line.
3. Click both to clear the pair.
4. Shuffle if the board runs out of legal pairs.
5. Empty the level before the timer does.

• Beat the clock, not the board — a level in Christmas Mahjong Connection 2020 is lost on time far more often than on a genuine lock.
• Start on the outer rows — the outside of the grid gives a line the space to turn twice and still arrive.
• Sort the round ornaments — baubles share an outline and differ in their pattern, so read the decoration rather than the shape.
• Hint late, shuffle early — a shuffle buys a whole new board while a hint only buys one pair.
• Play in full screen — the festive backdrops are busy, and at window size the tiles compete with them.