Platinum Mahjong

Shiny. Polished. Valuable. Beautiful. Yep, there's nothing like a good domino. Everyone should have a set. Unless you're Chinese, of course, in which case you'll have a fine set of mahjong tiles, instead.

In either case, if your funds don't extend to an ivory set with ebony detailing, some of which sell for as much as £100, you could do a heck of a lot worse than Platinum Mahjong.

Part of Gameloft's Platinum puzzle range, which also includes Sudoku, Platinum Mahjong brings a solitaire-like version of the popular game to mobile phone. By matching tiles of a similar design and so removing them from the playing area, the objective is to get rid of every single tile.

The strategy comes in when you choose the tiles to remove and in what order. You can only select tiles to pair up that don't have another one on top of them and that have an unobstructed side edge. You also need to consider where you take tiles from. Because the patterns in which the tiles are laid out in vary – and often can be six or seven tiles tall – you need to work at removing the top layers of tiles in an even fashion. Leave any piles of tiles untouched and you might find that the tile you need to clear the board is stuck under a handful of others and, consequently, unavailable.

Still, even if that situation does arise, all's not lost. In each round you get five shuffles where, if you run out of moves that you can make, the tiles are re-arranged, enabling you to carry on.

It's unlikely that you'll use many shuffles during the first seven levels, which represents one of four themed worlds controlled by mythical dragons. But as you proceed further through the 28 levels of Platinum Mahjong, you'll find that the difficulty level ramps up along with the time it takes to complete each one.

It's actually reassuring to discover that things do get harder – through the first world you do question where, exactly, the challenge lies. But keep ploughing on, because it's there, oh boy is it there.

Platinum Mahjong is not as mentally tough as Platinum Sudoku is, but there is just as much strategy and thinking required to complete each level. It's never too much though and, once you get stuck into the latter two worlds, you're glad that the increase in difficulty is so subtle. It helps keep you coming back to the game because you always feel like you've got a chance, that it's never unbeatable.

But this is only part of the reason you'll return to Platinum Mahjong until you've completed all of the levels; there are also a great many cool extras to win along the way.

New backgrounds to play on are a bigger incentive than you might think and are lushly drawn in an oriental style. New tile sets are also up for grabs that change the icons on the tiles that you need to match. And at the conclusion of each world is a bonus game that offers a different playing experience, such as a memory game where you need to match tiles that are laid face-down in the playing area.

In short, then, Platinum Mahjong is just that: polished, valuable and beautiful. Even if you don't think you'd ever really enjoy a mahjong game, there's such a sense of occasion and enjoyment in playing this one that you'll realise what you've been missing.