Mahjongg Variations' unique Spares & Doubles Mode

When we set out to create Variations we knew that there were already many Mahjongg titles on the market. Why then make another? We felt nobody ever took the game one step further. There were games that used Mahjongg tiles in completely different ways, but never a game where the rules were tweaked just enough to keep the classic game fresh and interesting while remaining true to the original concept. In fact that's the entire theme of Variations.

Spares and Doubles mode changes the classic mahjongg rules in two important ways. First, any two tiles that are the same and sit side by side on the same level can be removed right away. Here's an example that would be impossible to solve in regular Mahjongg but with spares and doubles it's easy.



Here we see an example of 6 tiles that would be impossible to remove using regular classic mahjongg rules. But, lucky for us, this set also contains a double. I've marked the double by making them a little grey. They are the two apple tiles in the middle.



Since the apples are a double we can remove them right away. In spares and doubles all pairs right next to eachother are free even if there are tiles blocking them to the left and right. Looking at the result we've created a hole and now both the forks-spoon tiles and globe tiles are free allowing us to clear the rest of this normally impossible board.

The other rule that is unique to spares and doubles is the "spare" rule. In spares and doubles you can remove a tile and keep it aside for later. It's a little like the card game freecell where you can take certain cards and hold them in one of 4 free spots except that in spares and doubles you can only ever have 1 spare. There is also an extra rule to remember when taking a spare. You can't return the spare you have until you've matched at least two tiles. You also can't spare a tile that isn't already free. Also you can't take another spare until you've placed your current spare back on the board. It's a little complicated so to make it clearer let's see a specific example.



Here's another layout that would be unsolveable using regular mahjongg rules.



Since no pairs are free and there are no doubles to help us we'll use a spare to solve this board. If the fork-spoon were gone then we could match the globes. So we spare the fork and spoon. The spare is shown in the grey area.



With the two globes free we can now remove them. That in turn frees up a pair of flower tiles.



We remove the flower tiles but now we're stuck again. Since we followed the rule of matching at least 1 pair before replacing the spare we can now put it back.



With the spare returned we can now match the fork-spoon tiles.

       

Then we match the stars and apples using regular rules.

Using a single spare we solved a Mahjongg layout that would normally have been impossible. These rules are pretty powerful but on tougher designs they can make layouts which are normally very very difficult using regular rules more fun and interesting and offer you the opportunity to solve the game by carefully using spares and doubles when you see them. It's not a free solve though. It is still possible to get stuck if you're not careful.

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