Play Shanghai Online

Shanghai came out for the Game Boy in 1989, published by Activision. It was one of those early puzzle games that felt perfectly suited to the handheld, a quiet, thoughtful experience you could pick up between bus stops or before bed. In an era dominated by action and platformers, it offered something different: a calm, methodical challenge that didn't rely on reflexes.

You don't control a character; you directly select matching pairs of mahjong tiles from a layered solitaire layout. The goal is to clear the entire board by removing all tiles. The core mechanics involve scanning for pairs that are free, meaning not covered by another tile or blocked on the left or right. As you remove tiles, new layers become accessible, but poor choices can leave you stranded with no moves left. The pace is entirely your own, though the puzzle's difficulty ramps up as the pyramid shrinks and your options narrow. It feels like untangling a knot with your eyes, a slow and deeply satisfying process of elimination.