Lanternloft Mahjong

Lanternloft Mahjong is mahjong solitaire: find two matching tiles that are free — nothing on top of them and one side open — and tap them both to lift them off. Clear the board and the level is won. The tiles are chunky and drawn with depth, so you can see at a glance which ones are stacked, and every pair you match releases a paper lantern that rises into the evening sky behind the board.

The thing that goes wrong in most mahjong games is a board you cannot finish: two copies of a tile end up buried under each other and you only find out at the end. Here every one of the six hundred levels is built backwards, by taking the board apart first, so each one has a way out. The shuffle is built the same way and can never deal you a dead end, and the hint does not just point at any pair — it points at one that keeps the board winnable.

Six hundred levels in thirty chapters, with a new twist every few chapters: face-down tiles, gold tiles, clocks, chains with keys, ice and fuses. There is a Daily Board with a calendar that fills with lanterns, a Zen mode with no clock, and a Rush mode of small boards against a ninety-second clock where every pair adds time.

Blocked tiles can be dimmed, and every tile can carry a small number or letter in its corner for anyone who does not read the characters. Six tile sets and six skies to unlock with coins, a daily gift and three daily tasks. It plays upright or sideways, in eight languages, and a board in progress resumes exactly where you left it.