Mahjong Fortuna

The suits here are astrological. Rams, bulls, twins, crabs, scales and scorpions take the place of bamboo and characters, and the twelve signs repeat across the pile in a way that rewards anyone who already knows the symbols on sight.

The board itself is a conventional layout. Pairs are matched two at a time, only uncovered tiles with a free side can be taken, and clearing the whole arrangement wins the game. Working the covered edges first pays in the Shanghai Dynasty pile as well.

A time limit applies, and that is what makes the zodiac artwork more than decoration. The signs are ornate, several are drawn in very similar linework, and the seconds lost to a second look are seconds taken off the finish. A neighbour from the same shelf is the Kitchen board.

A hint and a shuffle stand by for a jammed board, and both are best held until the pile has genuinely run out of legal pairs. Full screen is worth turning on before you start, since the fine detail in the engraving is what tells two similar signs apart, and the board takes taps as well as clicks. Sports builds the layers into another arrangement.

1. Learn the twelve zodiac symbols used on the tile faces.
2. Pick out two identical signs that are uncovered and open at one side.
3. Select them in turn to clear the pair from the pile.
4. Keep working before the time limit expires.
5. Remove every tile to complete the board.

• Group the similar signs — the scales and the archer share a great deal of linework, and confusing them is the usual wasted click.
• Take the top rank first — a covered zodiac tile stays illegal until the piece above it leaves.
• Watch the clock from the start — the time limit bites at the end, when only the buried pairs are left.
• Hold the shuffle back — it is the only way out of a locked pile, and there is no second one.
• Enlarge the board — full screen brings out the engraving detail that separates one sign from another.