Four winds, no shortcuts

Sit down at most mahjong apps and you're really playing solitaire in a costume: line up the matching tiles, clear the board, collect your confetti. That isn't mahjong. Mahjong is four players, four winds, and the quiet arithmetic of reading three hands you'll never see.

Mahjong Underground is the real thing. Authentic Hong Kong scoring, live claims on every discard, the split-second pung-or-pass calls that turn a calm table electric. A coach sits at your shoulder and teaches by explaining the why as you play — less a tutorial you sit through, more a voice that goes quiet as you get good.

Wrapped around it is a nine-city campaign, every table with its own regulars and its own nerve. It's the most demanding game we've built and, on a good hand, the most alive. Not long now.