Two Alike
Lift matching pairs off the stack. Every layout was built by taking it apart first.
What it is
Mahjong solitaire. A hundred and forty-four tiles in a stack; lift matching pairs off it until it is gone. A tile can be lifted when nothing sits on top of it and one long side is clear. A choice of layouts, unlimited undo, and nothing is timed.
The rules are the traditional ones and nobody tried to improve them. It is the second solitaire here after Seven Columns, and it exists for the same reason: one solitaire does not make a set.
Every layout comes apart
Layouts are built by lifting pairs off an empty board rather than by dealing tiles out and hoping. Whether a tile can be lifted depends only on where it sits and never on what is printed on it, so a way through can be laid out before a single tile has a face.
That means there is no such thing here as a layout that cannot be finished. The proof is replayed afterwards by a second set of rules written separately from the ones that built it, because a search that marks its own homework proves nothing.
You can still strand yourself — which is a different thing. When it happens the felt says so, and undo costs nothing.
How to play
- Choose a tileTap it
- Take the pairTap its partner
- Change your mindTap it again
- Take a move backUndo
Selecting a tile outlines every partner it could legally take. That is not a hint — it tells you nothing about which tile is worth taking, only which moves exist.
There is no one-tap move here, unlike Seven Columns. Choosing which of a matching four to take is the whole game: take the wrong two and the other two can end up buried.
On a desktop, click instead of tapping. There is no dragging anywhere and nothing is behind a key.
What it does not do
No score, no timer, no lives, no streak, no daily layout, no ads, no account, no leaderboard, no sound, no hint button and no shuffle.
Shuffle is out for a specific reason: it could produce an arrangement that nothing has ever verified, which would quietly break the one promise on the title screen. Unlimited undo covers being stuck and keeps the promise intact.
What isn't settled yet
Whether the tile faces hold up at arm's length on a wall-mounted screen rather than a phone held close. The circles and the bamboo are the pair most likely to blur into each other, and that has only been tested at reading distance.
Sound is the open question, as it is for every quiet game here. A soft click as a pair lifts might make it better under the hand — but the rooms this is built for are usually the ones that want silence.
Build Log
-
Build 5
Layouts are built by taking pairs off an empty board rather than by dealing tiles and then checking whether the result can be solved. Whether a tile can be lifted depends only on where it sits, never on what is printed on it, so a way through can be laid out before any tile has a face — which means there is no such thing here as a layout that cannot be finished. Worth writing down: the check that proves it originally shared its rules with the thing that built it, which is a search marking its own homework. It now gets replayed by a second set of rules written separately.
Credits and licences
No third-party engine — it draws to a plain canvas. The typefaces it does use are embedded under the SIL Open Font Licence, with the copyright notice retained in the shipped file. Cover art was rendered from the game’s own tile-drawing code.
Two Alike is original work by Launchway Games.