Chinese New Year Mahjong Game Review

Chinese New Year Mahjong Game Background

Chinese New Year Mahjong is a simple game of Mahjong Solitaire themed after foods and festivities tied to Lunar New Year celebration.

MarketJS published this game.

How to Play Chinese New Year Mahjong

Click on the green button in the bottom center to bring up the level select screen, then select a level number to play it.

Tap on an open stone then tap on an identically matching open stone to clear the set from the board. Stones feature fireworks, animals, foods, and symbols of good luck and prosperity.

Basic Gameplay Advice

This is a tile or stone matching game where you select pairs of identical tiles to remove them.

Across the top of the screen there is a level timer meter, the current level number, your level score, and how many valid moves are available. Each stone pair you make is worth 100 points. Across the bottom of the screen are 3 buttons for pausing the game, adjusting game sounds, and shuffling the board. Shuffling the remaining stones does not cost you points, but costs a bit of time.

You can only match stone pairs which are considered open. A stone is considered open if both of the following are true

• No stone is sitting atop it (so it can be removed without harming other stone’s positions on the stack).
• At least one of the left or right sides is empty of stones on the same level (so it can be grabbed).

Stones which are not open have a darker grayish overlay, whereas open stones have a brighter yellow or red background color.

When no valid matches remain the game automatically reshuffles the remaining stones.

This game has 12 stages which are unlocked sequentially. Clear all stones before the timer runs out to advance, or replay the current stage again until you finally beat it. As you progress through the game the stages include many more tiles to match off, though the level timer does not adjust as quickly as the volume of tiles does.

Advanced Playing Tips & Strategy

When the game is paused you can still see the tiles for visually matching them, so that you can quickly make matches when you resume play.

If you make a play and the number of available moves goes down by one it means you did not make any new plays available. Conversely, if the available move count stays the same or goes up it means some of the stones you made accessible on the move can be immediately matched off.

Educational Aspects

This game helps with pattern recognition and spatial memory.

Player Age Recommendations

Players of all ages should enjoy this game and be able to beat the first few stages. The last couple stages are quite challenging due to the time constraints.