Animal Connection

Animal Connection is a connect-style mahjong game, and its developer is unusually exact about the one rule that matters: which pairs are allowed to connect. Two identical tiles can be removed together in three situations. They may sit directly next to each other. They may be joined by a single straight line. Or the line joining them may bend, with one or two right-angle turns along the way. Put another way, the connecting path can have at most two corners.

The tiles carry animal pictures, going by the name. Beyond that, the developer does not describe the board, the number of levels or any time limit, so this page sticks to what is stated. It is a pairs game in which finding two identical animals is only half the job, and the path between them decides whether the match counts.

On a computer, left-click one tile and then a second tile showing the same animal. On a touchscreen, tap with your finger in the same way, using it as you would a mouse. The pair disappears if the two tiles touch, can be joined by one straight line, or can be joined by a line with no more than two right-angle turns. Otherwise the match is refused.

Count corners before you click. Tiles that touch are always a legal pair, so they make a safe place to start. For pairs further apart, trace the route with your eye: a straight run is fine, and so is a path that turns once or twice, but a third turn rules the match out.

A connect-pairs mahjong puzzle with animal tiles, in a landscape frame. Desktop play uses the left mouse button and touchscreens use a finger tap, per the developer's own notes. Time limits and level numbers are not mentioned.

Winter Mahjong uses the same two-corner limit on a winter board, adds a timer and has 32 levels. Christmas Onet Connect describes its path rule as three lines or two right angles.