Tower of Tiles Going Up

Here's an interesting take on a familiar game. Instead of taking you on a journey through Ancient China or Ancient Japan, Hotel Mahjong Deluxe treats you to all the amenities of a world-class hotel, serving all sorts of luxuries and relaxation. When you first walk into the hotel lobby, you'll immediately recognize that this is a five-star establishment and it shows! Stroll over to the elevator to start your mahjong adventure, visiting each room to partake in a new puzzle and a unique challenge.

Your journey begins, appropriately enough, on the first floor. There, you will find doors to five of the hotel's rooms, each of which offers a unique mahjong layout to challenge your tile-matching ability. Playing in the background is soothing, yet invigorating music and you are surrounded by all sorts of colorful characters and vibrant graphics. The lift attendant is particularly jovial in his presentation.

After completing each mahjong game, you will be awarded with one, two, or three stars. This is based on your performance within that stage. Finish the stage as quickly as possible to earn the highest star rating and try to minimize your usage of shuffles and hints, as these can detract from your total score. When you have cleared all five rooms on that floor, you can go back to the elevator to approach the next floor. How far up the tower will you go?

Understanding the Ancient Game

At its core, mahjong solitaire is a very simple game. All you have to do is survey the field of tiles and seek out a matching pair. Translating this experience to the virtual environment of a Mahjong Hotel has been executed beautifully, and in many ways, this experience is actually even more intuitive!

Lined up on the bottom of the screen are a series of helpful indicators. Reading from left to right are access to the main menu, pause, your current score, % of the puzzle completed, number of available moves, number of available shuffles, and number of available hints. These last two elements come in limited supply, so use them sparingly.

You'll also notice two gauges. The one on the far right is your bonus gauge and by quickly finding matching sets, you can fill this gauge and increase your point multiplier. Reach the top to earn an additional hint or shuffle. The time gauge can be found on the right side of screen. Be sure to complete the puzzle before time runs out.

Five Fun Ways to Play

When you first start out, the only game style available to you is Classic Mahjong. This is where you must find matching pairs of tiles within the given layout. As you work your way up to higher floors, novel game styles will become available to you and these can be unlocked for casual play in the Casino.

For example, the Triple game style requires you to find three matching tiles rather than just two. When you reveal the Split game style, you will see a set of tiles locked within a golden square. Find matching tiles for the ones within the golden square. Other game styles include Freecell and River.