Simple Game Reviews

Match 4 to create an exploding gem

Bejeweled is the classical puzzle game that started the genre known as “Match 3″, which is the name used for puzzle games based on swapping adjacent pieces to create matches of 3 in a row. Lots of match-3 games have followed, with more or less interesting changes to keep the genre fresh, but Bejeweled remains the true original.

Setting: The game features a space setting, in which you move from planet to planet and discover different nice backdrops. But no story is included, Bejeweled really is a pure puzzle game.

Gameplay: The gameplay consists of swapping adjacent gems in order to create sets of 3. When a set is created, the gems in the set disappear and the gems above fall. Matching 4 gems at a time creates a “Power Gem” that will explode if it gets included in a set, destroying all the nearby gems. Matching 5 gems at a time creates a “Hyper Cube” that can be used to remove all the gems of a chosen type from the board. The more gems you match at a time the more points you score, and extra points are awarded for chain reactions.

Based on that gameplay, 4 game modes are included in Bejeweled 2 Deluxe: a “Classic” mode, an “Action” mode that adds a timer forcing you to play faster, a relaxing and never-ending “Endless” mode, and a “Puzzle” mode where you have to clear special pre-defined boards. While the Classic, Action and Endless modes are basically the same, the Puzzle mode really plays differently and features some pretty challenging levels.

Puzzle mode can be tricky

Personal opinion: Bejeweled is a very pleasant and addictive game, but something is missing to make it a truly great puzzle game. In the classic modes of the game, you pretty much do the same things over and over again: find possible sets of gems, swap them accordingly, repeat. Of course the greatest puzzle games are based on simple principles such as these, but they also usually involve some form of strategy. In Tetris you can try set up your pieces so that you’ll make 4 rows disappear at once, and in Puzzle Bobble you can create “grapes” that you’ll then detach with a single additional bubble at the start of the grape. But in Bejeweled I couldn’t quite figure out how strategy could be involved: you want to set up chain reactions, but it seems impossible to do so. So in the end Bejeweled feels very mindless to me. Of course it might also just be that I haven’t reached a skill level that allows me to set up chain reactions…

The puzzle mode however plays completely differently and is the opposite of mindless, as some levels are really tough to figure out, which means it feels lovely when you do figure them out. That mode was a very nice surprise to me as it isn’t the main mode of the game and I really wasn’t expecting anything out of it. My main reproach is that huge “Hint” button that is just way too tempting!

Play Bejeweled 2 Deluxe:
Download the demo for Windows. A Mac version is also available.
Order the full version.

(7 votes, average: 2.86 out of 5)

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