Written by: Ian

 

 

 

Bejeweled has been around for ages, and has seen plenty of releases, even just on XBLA. How does this latest PopCap game stand out? Puzzle games have become congested on XBLA, and there are several other Bejeweled games alone available for gamers to play too. Is this 1200 points wasted or well spent?

 

 

"Bejeweled 3" contains ‘quest’ mode, but do not confuse this for a story- this remains an absolute puzzle game, as opposed to a hybrid like Puzzle Quest.

 

 

Bejeweled is perhaps the original ‘match 3’ game where you match colours together, create combos, and score big points, and the formula remains as addictive as ever. However, the game has new modes like poker, which force you to think ahead, as well as time pressured games like lightning and gold mine, and even the ‘zen’ mode, which can help you relax by focusing your breathing, showcasing the real variety within the game, whilst keeping everything to the same basic theme.

 

 

The gameplay is not exactly as spot-on as you may like though. I find that classic and zen modes are a little slow-paced, and craved a more time-pressured experience. The other modes provide this, but are really, really tough in comparison. The controller is far more inelegant than a mouse, so the timing required makes the game far tougher than it needs be, so there was a bit of a lack of balance.

 

Still, there is a huge amount to do, and almost endless replayability, so whilst certain little things like Twist mode may be missing, this is a superior Bejeweled experience when compared to both previous games and the huge number of competitors out there.