Mahjong Connect Gold

DRA sticks to the rule everyone already knows. In Mahjong Connect Gold the tiles are collected by matching their pairs, exactly as the classic version of the game demands, and the studio makes no attempt to dress that up as an innovation. The reasoning behind the move order is in What Is Mahjong?.

The gold in the title is a treatment rather than a mechanic. This is a board aimed at people who already follow the series and want another one in the same idiom, with an ancient theme and a pace its own tags describe as relaxing. The same section of the catalogue also holds the Fruit board.

Where a board like this gets interesting is the endgame. Early on almost any identical pair is available to you; by the last dozen tiles the question becomes which pair can still legally be joined, and picking wrong leaves two faces stranded on opposite sides of the field with nothing between them to clear. The window is 800 by 600 and answers to a mouse or a fingertip. The Link board stands next to this one in the same list.

1. Find two tiles on the gold field showing the same face.
2. Collect them as a pair to take them off the board.
3. Keep the field balanced so late pairs stay reachable.
4. Continue until every tile has been collected.

• Plan the last dozen — an endgame on this board is decided by choices made while the field was still full.
• Avoid mirrored pairs — clearing two tiles from the same side leaves the other copies facing each other across an empty field.
• Keep a route open — a lane through the middle of the gold field is worth more than any single early match.
• Settle in — Mahjong Connect Gold is tagged relaxing, and the endgame rewards the player who is not rushing.