One tile from winning. Which ones?
You can read a mahjong hand. Can you name every tile that completes it, fast? 碰碰胡 is a Hong Kong mahjong waiting-tile quiz for iPhone and Mac.
Seeing the hand is easy. Seeing every wait is not.
Most players can tell when a hand is ready. Fewer can name every tile it is waiting for, and at a real table there is no time to count. A hand of one suit can wait on as many as nine different tiles. Miss one, and you may let a winning tile go by.
碰碰胡 trains exactly that moment, one hand at a time, against the clock.
How it plays.
Thirteen tiles slide in and flip face up. The hand is one tile from winning. A burning rope starts the clock. Below the hand sits a short row of tiles that could finish it. Tap every one that would, then press Done.
- Accuracy first — name the exact set of winning tiles for full marks. Miss one, or tap one that finishes nothing, and the hand scores less.
- Then time — accuracy comes first; a faster answer earns a bonus.
- Then the lesson — after every hand, the game shows how the winning tiles complete the hand, starting with the ones you missed, so you get better just by playing.
- Ten hands a round — a round takes a few minutes, ends with a summary of every hand, and your best rounds are kept on your iPhone.
Home
Mid-hand
Result
Summary
Four levels.
Easy, Medium and Hard ask for every tile that completes the shape of the hand. Advanced asks the Hong Kong question: which of those tiles are worth enough to win on?
- FreeEasy 初级The hand comes sorted, with one or two waits. Fifteen seconds.
- FreeMedium 中级The hand comes shuffled, with two to four waits. Twenty-five seconds. You may sort it, at a cost to that hand's score.
- UnlockHard 高级 · 清一色Every hand is a single suit, with three to six waits. Thirty-five seconds.
- UnlockAdvanced 进阶 · 三番起糊Some tiles finish the hand but score under 3 fan. They are traps. Call one and it is 詐胡, a false win, and it costs you twice a wrong tile. Some hands have no winning tile at all, and saying so is the right answer. Forty seconds.
Hong Kong rules.
碰碰胡 uses Hong Kong rules as they are played casually today: the 三三制 fan values, a 3-fan minimum and a 10-fan cap. A tile that can win depends on more than the thirteen tiles you see, so Advanced fixes the rest and says so: you win off another player's discard, not by drawing it yourself; no flowers are played; East is both your seat wind and the round wind; and no rare bonus applies. Winning off a discard is the strict case, so a tile that wins here wins however it arrives.
Free to play. One purchase unlocks the rest.
Easy and Medium are free, with no limit on how much you play. A single one-time purchase unlocks Hard, Advanced, posting your scores to the leaderboards, and the gold tile set. There is no subscription and there are no ads. The price will be shown in the App Store.
Each level has its own Game Center leaderboard. Your score is posted at the end of a round, under your Game Center nickname. Game Center is optional: if you are not signed in, you can still play every level you have.
What 碰碰胡 needs.
- iPhone — iOS 17 or later. On iPhone the game plays in landscape only.
- Mac — macOS 14 or later. The game runs in a resizable window; the View menu zooms it to 100%, 150% or 200%. Esc leaves a round, and M turns the sound on and off.
It speaks Simplified Chinese today. Traditional Chinese, with Hong Kong terms, and English are planned for release.
Nothing comes to us.
碰碰胡 has no account, no Mu Media server, no analytics and no crash reporting. The purchase and the leaderboards are Apple's services, and the optional play reminder will be a notification your iPhone schedules for itself. Your settings and best scores stay on your iPhone. The details are in the privacy policy.
Questions
Is 碰碰胡 out yet?
Not yet. 碰碰胡 is in development and coming to iPhone and Mac. There is no release date and no price yet, and nothing to download today.
Is it a mahjong game I play against other people?
No. There is no table, no opponents and no betting. It is a quiz: one hand at a time, and you name the tiles it is waiting for. The leaderboards are the only place you meet other players.
Which rules does it use?
Hong Kong rules as they are played casually today: the 三三制 fan values, a 3-fan minimum (三番起糊) and a 10-fan cap, with no flowers. Advanced judges every tile as a win off another player's discard, with East as both seat and round wind.
Why does it only play in landscape?
A phone on its side fits all thirteen tiles in one row at a size you can read, with the answer tiles below them and the Done button under your right thumb.
What does the one-time purchase unlock?
Hard, Advanced, posting your scores to the Game Center leaderboards, and the gold tile set. You pay once. There is no subscription and there are no ads. Easy and Medium are free to play for as long as you like.
Do I need an account?
No. There is no sign-up. The leaderboards use Game Center, Apple's own service, and you never have to sign in to it to play.
Does it work offline?
Yes. Every hand is dealt on your iPhone, and your best scores are kept there. You only need a connection to buy the unlock and to post to or read the leaderboards.
Which iPhones will it run on?
Any iPhone with iOS 17 or later. On a Mac, macOS 14 or later.
Is there a Mac version?
Yes. 碰碰胡 is coming to the Mac as well as the iPhone, and will be available on the Mac App Store too. It needs macOS 14 or later and runs in a resizable window, with the View menu zooming it to 100%, 150% or 200%. The Game Center leaderboards are shared between iPhone and Mac. The purchase is made on each store; whether one purchase will cover both is not decided yet.
Get 碰碰胡
Coming to iPhone and Mac
In development · No release date yet · Leaderboards and the unlock arrive with the release