Western Mahjong is a tile-matching game based on historic and fictional Old West culture, television and films. It has elements similar to Eastern Mahjong. For example, the player must remove all uncovered matching tiles from layers suspended in patterns in front of a backdrop. They must earn the highest possible score. They can remove some non-matching tiles from the same categories.
The entire game features the Old West theme. For example, it displays locked levels as old buildings. The tiles feature Wild West and Southwest icons, such as barrels, cards with a bottle of alcohol, hats, lanterns, guns, sheriff star badges, boots, horseshoes, lizards, scorpions, snakes, animal skulls and wanted posters. The tiles hang in front of related backdrops, such as daytime and nighttime desert scenes.
Western Mahjong rewards the player with trophies when they reach certain achievements, such as earning a specific score, earning the maximum score, completing a level within a specific amount of time, and winning without using the shuffle or hint options. They earn the most points by clearing a level quickly.
The player can use shuffle and hint tools displayed as gold stars near the bottom-right corner to reveal pairs. They can also match animal skulls and guns based on category. They receive three per type that reset with each level. The game highlights selected tiles with a blue border frame.
