Mr Mahjong

Chinese manufacturing doesn't exactly have the best public image. The realisation that millions of toys assembled in China are a danger to the kids lovingly cradling them is a PR nightmare. Now would be a good time for China to put its house in order then, and – with the help of German development studio FDG Soft – Mr Mahjong is likely to be a far more palatable export than lead poisoning.

It's with some skill that FDG has handled the translation of mahjong – a traditional tile-based Chinese game that is as much about culture as it is skill and luck – to mobiles, with Mr Mahjong managing to overcome any potential screen-size issues and convey the appeal of what can be an expansive game in a tool that fits in the palm of your hand.

For the uninitiated, mahjong is essentially about matching pairs. Tiles are stacked face-up in piles to form various shapes (in Mr Mahjong's case, ranging from standard forms such as triangles and circles to elaborate signs of the zodiac) with players removing the matching pairs to clear the deck. Mahjong's trick is that pairs can only be removed when one of their sides – either left or right – isn't touching another tile.

Essentially, this makes Mr Mahjong a game of reacting against the clock, spotting the available matching pairs to free up other pairs down the line, all in the quickest time possible. FDG actively rewards speedy and precise action, too, with the points awarded increasing should you eliminate pairs of the same suit in succession or in speedy time.

That, for some, will be where Mr Mahjong falls down, with navigation from tile to tile relying on the phone's directional pad, which can be awkward.

The game's saving grace in this respect is that this is no long and arduous task. Progress can be saved and returned to at any time, meaning Mr Mahjong sits perfectly in mobile gaming's roster of quick-fixes for long train journeys or the odd spare five minutes. Its appeal is also widened by the fact that FDG's take on mahjong is flexible. The game's solo-play status means that those who are eager for high scores and accolades can go for it, setting up combos and clearing the board in the quickest time possible.

Perhaps more important than any of this though, is the fact that Mr Mahjong, although obviously limited in variety, is a joy to play, doing the game it simulates justice by steadily raising the difficulty without leaving the player adrift at any stage. Indeed, even when the next pair seems frustratingly invisible, it's always possible to ask Mr Mahjong to highlight them, with the only penalty being that the pair in question no longer registers a score.

That's why, although a mobile version of a traditional Chinese game was never likely to be revolutionary, Mr Mahjong finds itself in the enviable position of successfully translating mahjong's strengths without burdening it with the inability to cope with its chosen format. In short, this fits. For puzzle enthusiasts or for those who just need to kill a little time, Mr Mahjong is a solid – if unspectacular – performer.