Mahjong Cubes

Mahjong Cubes takes the old tile-matching game off the table and builds it into a block. Up to a hundred and twenty-four cubes stand on a turntable, each one showing the same symbol on every face. A cube is free when two of its sides that meet at an edge are open, so the corners and the top edges are where every game starts. Pick two free cubes with the same symbol and they lift off, the cubes behind them open up, and the shape slowly comes apart. Some of the best matches sit round the back, so turn the turntable a quarter at a time with Q and E, the arrows beside the stack or a sideways swipe.

There are twelve shapes, from an eight-pair Brick through Stairs, a Gate you can see through and a hollow Fortress, up to the five-by-five-by-five Grand Cube, and four symbol sets to play them in: fruit, gems, animals and glowing runes on dark stone. Every board is dealt by taking pairs off the finished shape in reverse, so there is always a way to clear it. If you paint yourself into a corner, Hint lights up a pair that keeps the board clearable, Shuffle deals the remaining symbols again and Undo puts the last pair back.

Timed rounds last three minutes. Every match puts two seconds back on the clock (it tops out at four minutes), quick matches inside four seconds of each other build a chain that multiplies the points, and clearing a shape adds fifteen seconds and moves you straight on to the next one, so it makes a quick brain workout with a high score to chase. Relaxed mode drops the clock so you can relax and take each shape at your own pace, with your best time kept for every one. Your high score, your best chain and the shapes you have cleared are saved in your browser.