How legal is it to release a minesweeper game? Thread

So I know there are plenty of Minesweeper games out there, but I wonder if they all have to deal with legal issues regarding the fact that Microsoft owns the rights for this game. I'm currently working on a game that is pretty far from the classic Microsoft's Minesweeper, but that's the core of its gameplay.

This question is actually more general, is it legal to entirely take the mechanics of another game and use them in your own?