Super Mario Mahjong

Fan tributes were the currency of the Flash portals, and this is one of the tidier ones: a stacked tile board where the faces are Mushroom Kingdom sprites, so you are pairing mushrooms, shells and plumbers rather than circles and bamboo.

The rules are unchanged from any layered board. A tile is takeable when nothing sits on it and one side is clear, and identical pairs come off together. What this build adds is a support kit, with a hint that points out a legal pair and a shuffle for the moment the stack has nothing left to offer. Mah Jongg Solitaire is kept online here for the same reason.

A timer runs alongside all of it, which is why the shuffle matters more here than on a leisurely board: rearranging costs seconds you may want later. Another entry from the same shelf is Kris Remastered.

The original file is Flash and it plays through the Ruffle emulator on this page. The sprite art holds up better than the audio does, so expect the odd coin sound to clip or arrive late, expect the shuffle to redraw abruptly, and take full screen from the browser rather than from the game’s own frame. Empress Mahjong: Jade Palace uses the matching rule on a differently drawn set.

1. Look over the stack and note which sprites appear four times rather than twice.
2. Take identical pairs that are uncovered above and open on one side.
3. Call the hint when you cannot see a legal pair, before the clock eats the doubt.
4. Shuffle if the board is genuinely locked, and carry on clearing.
5. Empty the layout before the timer runs down.

• Shells and mushrooms look alike small — check the colour band before you commit a click.
• Strip the top layer — every removed sprite up there opens two more below it.
• Shuffle early rather than late — with more tiles left, a rearrangement gives you a better board.
• Hints cost time, not points — with a clock running, one hint beats a minute of hunting.
• Full screen sharpens the sprites — pixel art scales badly in a small window.