Mahjong: World Contest is a tile-matching game based on Chinese Mahjong. It challenges a player to become a champion in a worldwide contest that starts at the Blooming Lotus and continues at other locations where they progress from Newbie to Experienced, Expert, Master and Grand Master.�
The player doesn't need to clear away every tile from all 20 patterns per location. Instead, they complete tasks like removing a specific number of golden tiles within a particular number of moves after they've earned so many points or completed their tasks within a specific time frame. For example, they might need to remove six golden tiles within 28 moves after they earn 500 points.
The game allows the player to change the artwork on the tiles at any time. They can use traditional icons (i.e., bamboo, dots, dragons, flowers and seasons), numbers with flowers and seasons, or standard playing card suits and courts. Whatever their choice, they match pairs of identical icons except for flowers and seasons. The game allows the player to pair matching and non-matching tiles within these two categories, as long as they're from the same category.
Mahjong: World Contest also features star and achievement rewards. If the player completes all tasks, they receive all three stars. They receive trophies for achievements like completing all games in a specific location or earning a specific number of points. The player receives the most points when they remove pairs quickly, remove pairs consecutively to create higher multipliers, and leave behind a lot of standard tiles after removing all golden ones.
The game features a double-arrow shuffle button and a bird icon that shades unavailable tiles to help reveal pairs as fast as possible. It also automatically removes graphics from matching tiles briefly, leaving behind the white backgrounds to hint at a pairing.
