Mahjong solitaire games are one of the most sought after games in the online world. It is a simple and to an extent an addictive tile matching game that can be both relaxing as well as stressful. Undoing hints and many other hidden treasures make this game attractive and fabulous among the long array of online games available.



Interestingly Mahjong solitaire game is not an ancient game as many of the users may think. It was made available in few universities as projects for students. Later with the passage of innovation and technology embracement, Mahjong Solitaire game took the form of online game format.



American company game, Activision, created the first popularly distributed Mahjong solitaire game in the year 1986. The game was then named "Shanghai" by the company and was created for the Macintosh platform. Brodie Lockard and Brad Fregger are considered to be the creative brains behind this popular game. The game proved to be an immediate success as it sold over ten million copies worldwide in all versions including Mac, DOS, Commodore etc.



The Mahjong game board is composed of 144 tiles (the number can vary depending on different versions and levels of game). Each tile has different images such as numbers, seasons and flowers. The tiles are arranged in a certain layout which varies according to the game's difficulty.

The board layout is created randomly by the computer and these layouts can differ in pattern, size and height. There are over hundred varieties of layouts and some of them are designed with time implementations - so when the time runs out, the game will end.



Game Objective:

The main goal of the Mahjong Solitaire game is to clear the board by removing all the matching pairs from the given layout. A so called "valid pair" consists of two tiles which are both "free" and "identical".

In general you can remove a pair of tiles if the following conditions are satisfied:



1. The tiles are of identical in nature, for example- 6 and 6 or East and East.

2. All the seasons and flowers can be matched with each other even if they are not identical in nature, for example - the Winter tile can be matched with Spring tile.

3. Each tile of the pair must be subjected to following conditions;

a. no other tile is lying above or partially covering the chosen one

b. no other tile is lying to the left or right of it.



A set of mahjong solitaire consists of 144 pieces or "bones" and includes:

1. Colors - consisting of characters, bamboos and circles.

2. Honors - consisting of winds and dragons

3. Bonuses - consisting of seasons and flowers.

The most popular categories of Mahjong solitaire games are the traditional one and the European one.



Mahjong Solitaire game: How to play?

Colors - It consists of three categories; characters, bamboos and circles which are also called "dots" or "balls" and are given numbers from 1 to 9. There are four bones in each category which adds up to 108 bones in the set. The bones numbered 1-9 are called sets and the bones numbered 2-8 are called the ordinary ones.

Honors - It consists of two categories, the "winds" and the "dragons". The winds are divided as West, East, North and South and the dragons are divided into Red, Green and White.

Similar to colors there are four bones of each kind which sums up to 28 honors.

Bonuses - It consists of "seasons" and "flowers". Both category have just one bone which are numbered from 1-4. since there is only one piece in each kind bonuses can be achieved by matching it in any way, not only within a category but also within the whole bonuses set, note that not all implementations of Mahjong Solitaire will have these bonus tiles.

For example - Winter can be combined with any tile or bone in the seasons category.



Scoring

A player gets points for each identical pair taken from the table. The point value of each set is multiplied by the number of pairs left behind on the table. They are calculated in the following manner with the point value of each set multiplied by the number of pairs untouched on the board.



Mahjong Solitaire Scoring Type of Tile Points Awarded Number of Tiles Characters 1 point 36 Circles 2 points 36 Bamboos 3 points 36 Winds 4 points 16 Dragons 5 points 12 Flowers 6 points 8 Seasons 7 points 8

For example, when a game is begun there are 72 pairs on the table. When a player removes a pair of wind from the table, he gets 4(set value) multiplied by 72 (pairs left on the table). So his score is counted as 4 X 72=288. As the player removes another pair from the table, his set value is multiplied by what is left on the table i.e. 71.In case of the bonuses category, the bone having highest value is multiplied with the set value.

For example, a season plus flower pair in the first move is calculated 7 X 72=504 points whereas flower plus flower can fetch only 6 X 72=432 points.



Mahjong Solitaire: Gameplay Tips

Following are few tips and strategies:

1. When choosing between few possible tiles to match, try to find and remove a pair that will blocks the most tiles

2. Try to make an effort to eliminate tall stacks and long rows.

3. Each tile appears four times, hence choose wisely. For example, if you have 3 free tiles from the same category, calculate and look ahead to figure out which two tiles will be the better choice.

4. Don't depend on computer hints as it may not show the best move on the board but the first possible move.



Featuring sleek graphics, good Chinese music, ability to find solutions and undo moves make Mahjong solitaire game all the more exciting than the earlier Shanghai version.

Overall Mahjong Solitaire game play is fun to play and definitely brain racking. There are over hundreds of game levels and multiple levels of difficulty. The easier levels may not be much of a challenge and can be a great source to relax. However difficult levels can be harder that can stretch your brain.

We wish you hours of fun!

