Mahjong Story 2

Mahjong Story 2 is built on scale. Agame gives the sequel more than a thousand levels, organised as a journey through a series of worlds, so the unit of play is not a single board but a chapter you chip away at. The beginner rules page sets out the same mechanics on one page.

That length changes what the game is for. A thousand levels cannot all be hard, and they are not: the difficulty rises slowly, the controls are deliberately plain, and the soundtrack is written to sit in the background. It is a campaign to keep returning to over weeks rather than a board to be conquered in an evening. Pretty Manga Girls keeps company with this board in the catalogue.

The tile work underneath is the familiar matching loop, dressed in the art of whichever world you have reached. Agame runs it at 800 by 600 and supports touch alongside the mouse, which fits the way a campaign this long actually gets played: a few boards at a time, on whatever screen is nearest. Mojicon Fruit Connect is catalogued beside this board.

1. Start the first world and open its opening level.
2. Match identical tiles to remove them from the layout.
3. Clear the layout to finish the level and unlock the next one.
4. Work through the worlds in order as the arrangements grow denser.

• Treat worlds as chapters — Mahjong Story 2 has over a thousand levels, so finishing a world is a more useful goal than finishing the game.
• Learn each world's art — the tile faces change with the setting, and the first few boards of a new world are where you retrain your eye.
• Uncover before you tidy — removals that free stacked tiles are worth more than removals that neaten a corner.
• Short sittings suit it — with levels this numerous, the campaign is built to be picked up and put down rather than marathoned.