Jewels Kyodai Mahjong is a tile-matching game based on Chinese Mahjong that features a jungle exploration theme. The player matches identical pairs of knapped, black stone tiles that display painted images related to temples and treasures, such as highly valued jewelry, carved masks and cut jewels. They must clear the entire playfield and earn as many gold coin points as possible.
Every level, referred to as a new game, offers up the tiles layered in various patterns. Some patterns relate to the jungle theme. Others represent solitaire and similar games commonly associated with new variations of Mahjong. For example, the game patterns include Fortress, Mask, TriPeaks and Turtle.
Jewels Kyodai Mahjong provides the player with information to help them find matches. It displays the number of possible matches next to an icon labeled with a question mark. It displays the number of pairs found so far next to a green checkmark. It also supplies both hint and tile shuffle options. That said, the player must watch advertisements to use the last two tools.
If the player wants to earn the most points, they must also find and remove pairs quickly and consecutively. If they perform this task correctly, they receive point multipliers displayed in a green circle edged with a gold band that decreases in size to warn the player of the amount of time remaining before the multiplier area resets. They must find another pair before the multiplier disappears from the screen.