Spartan Mahjong

The joke in Spartan Mahjong is on the tiles: vegetables in Spartan helmets and breastplates, drawn by Lof Games as a straight-faced classical army. Underneath is a simplified pair-matching board with one clear rule — a tile can be taken only if its left or its right side is free. Kris Remastered keeps company with this board in the catalogue.

That single-axis rule is stricter than it sounds. Vertical neighbours block nothing, so a column of armoured onions can be worked through from either end, but a tile boxed in horizontally is untouchable no matter how exposed it looks from above. Reading the board sideways is the skill this layout asks for. The same heading covers Artifacts 2 as well.

A clock runs, and the scoring turns it into something you play against rather than merely survive: unused hints and the time left over are both converted into bonus points at the end. Spending a hint therefore costs twice — once for the seconds it takes and once for the bonus it forfeits. The 800 by 450 board takes a mouse or a tap, and full screen is the sensible setting, because the armoured vegetables differ mostly in helmet crest and colour. Enchanted Mahjong Saga is filed under the same heading here.

1. Scan the board for two matching armoured vegetables.
2. Check that each has its left or right side clear — vertical neighbours do not matter.
3. Click the pair to remove it from the board.
4. Keep the clock in mind: leftover time turns into bonus points.
5. Clear every Spartan tile before time expires, saving hints for the bonus.

• Read left and right — Spartan Mahjong only cares about horizontal freedom.
• Unspent hints pay — they are converted into bonus points at the end.
• Break long rows early — a wide unbroken row locks every tile inside it.
• Finish fast — saved time is scored as well.
• Play full screen — helmet crests are the detail that separates two similar vegetables.