Inks ( iOS) or Zen Pinball ( iOS or Android) Mahjong!! for iOS and Mahjong Titan for Android are two great games to start with, but feel free to explore the category-especially if you’re looking for a new challenge (or are tired of staring at the same backgrounds for your tiles). Thankfully, if one game starts to bug you, you can always check out any of the many, many other versions of Mahjong that are available until you find one that’s a perfect fit. There are a million different Mahjong apps for iOS and Android, and they all tend to share one trait in common: You’re going to have to deal with some kind of advertising, either pop-ups or interstitial videos, while you’re clearing tiles. Mahjong!! ( iOS) or Mahjong Titan ( Android) Yes, achievements in a card game - didn’t have that back in Windows 95, I bet. With Hearts+, you can throw down a card game with against friends or other random online players, or you can sit back and challenge the computer to unlock the game’s many achievements. Over on Android, Minesweeper Classic is a pixel-perfect homage to the Windows original-up to and including the happy and frowny faces for when you make a perfect or problematic pick. Minesweeper Q is an excellent version of the game for iOS that should give you countless hours of frustrating mine-clearing. There isn’t a great dual-platform version of Minesweeper, so we’re splitting our recommendations on this one. Minesweeper Q ( iOS) or Minesweeper Classic ( Android)

Not only do you get good ol’ Solitaire in Microsoft’s official mobile pack, but you’ll also be able to play FreeCell, Klondike, Spider, and other fun variants. Microsoft Solitaire Collection ( Android) Getting stuck with a setup that you can do nothing to save (or clear) is one of life’s greatest frustrations.

Making those cards bounce is one of life’s greatest pleasures. Here’s a quick roundup of some of the best ways to get your Windows gaming nostalgia fix on your mobile device: Solitaire 95 ( iOS, Android) However, I kill a lot of time on my smartphone, a perfect place for some of these Windows classics to reemerge and frustrate you all over again - I’m looking at you, SkiFree. That’s not to say that Microsoft’s games were bad, it’s just not very often that I find myself needing to strike up some Minesweeper to kill time. I think the last time I played a Windows game - as in, a Microsoft game that comes baked into the Windows operating system - was back in Windows 95.

Microsoft traditional mahjong