What is it?
Spacecard mahjongg is a game mode in Twilight Mahjongg where special space-card tiles
are added to the rules to give the player a helping hand and keep
the classic game fresh and interesting. I'll just note quickly that spacecard
mahjongg is similar to wildcard mode in our other mahjongg title Mahjongg
Variations. (They are different in many respects though)
As pictured above, some of the tiles on the board are special Spacecard tiles.
Spacecard tiles match eachother like regular mahjongg tiles, but when you match
them you are given a random tool that you can use to help you clear the rest of the
tiles in the layout.
Happy Alien
The first tool is the "happy alien" tool. Happy alien is the most useful tool
and the most powerful one you have. Get a few of these and you can clear the board
pretty quickly. When you match two spacecards and get a happy alien tool you have
to then click on any tile on the board. Once you've done that all the images in
the set that are the same as the one you clicked become happy aliens. So say for
instance that you click on a picture of venus. All of the venus tiles become happy
aliens. That's true even for the tiles that are hidden.
Why is that helpful? Two reasons. First the happy alien image is designed to be
very easy to spot. Usually what you'll want to do is change a picture you normally
have difficulty with to happy aliens making it a very easy tile to match. The other
benefit is if you happen to get more than one happy alien spacecard bonus. If you
get more than one then you can change a second set of pictures to happy aliens. That
means you now have 8 tiles that can be matched with one-another instead of two sets
of 4! It gives you many more matching possiblities and makes the board much easier.
Blaster
The 2nd tool in our arsenal is the blaster tool. The blaster tool does not let you
pick where you'll use it. It's a tool that randomly blasts away two matching tiles.
The nice thing about it is that it can blast any two tiles away, even tiles that are
locked and unplayable. That's great because it can make holes in the board and free
up more tiles for you to play later. Of course it's always possible to get unlucky
and have the blaster zap the wrong two tiles or two tiles that were already free.
Teleporter
The teleporter is a very useful tool. When you match two cards and get a teleporter
you can swap the places of any two tiles on the board. First you click the first
tile you want to move and then you click the one you want it to change places with.
This can help you out of trouble spots and free up important tiles that have been
giving you trouble on the board.
Lightbulb
The last tool is the lightbulb or hint tool. Click on any tile and the lightbulb
"lights up" any matching tiles. The matching tiles have to already be free though.
How is that different than the 3 hints you already have? You can use the lightbulb
as many times as you like until you make a match. That means you can click on 3 or 4
tiles or as many as you like, and memorize where their matches are before continuing
to play the game. The more you can remember the more useful this tool is.
