Mahjong Deluxe

Six boards and three levels of difficulty are the whole menu in this Mahjong Deluxe from Physical Form, which makes it one of the more legible entries on the hub: the entire game is visible from the first screen, with nothing unlocked later. The Solitaire shelf carries the other boards of this kind.

The studio’s own description of the ancient board game is unusually honest about the mix — skill, strategy and a bit of luck. The luck lives in the deal. Which copies of a face end up stacked on each other decides whether a layout unravels smoothly or leaves you three tiles from the finish with two of them pinned. Working the covered edges first pays in the Flower Country board as well.

Three settings across six layouts gives eighteen combinations to work through, and the same setting reads quite differently on a tall stack than on a flat spread. The frame is 800 by 500, wider and shallower than most boards in this collection, and it takes a mouse or a fingertip. The Four Rivers pile piles the tiles into a different silhouette.

1. Choose one of the six boards and one of the three difficulty settings.
2. Take identical tiles off the deal in pairs, working from the free ones.
3. Clear the upper pieces before the ones they are resting on.
4. Empty the layout, then try the same board a setting higher.

• Learn one board — six layouts is a small enough set that knowing each one properly is realistic.
• Raise the setting, not the board — replaying the same layout harder shows you more than a new layout at the easy setting.
• Accept the deal — Physical Form admits luck is part of it, so a hopeless stack is worth restarting rather than agonising over.
• Read the width — at 800 by 500 the layouts spread sideways, so scan across before scanning down.