bejeweled

Title: Bejeweled
Publisher: PopCap
Mode: Single Player
Genre: Casual, Puzzle, Match 3, Strategy
Platforms: Browser, Mobile

Glistening diamonds, rubies and emeralds, oh my! You’re in for a treasure trove of adventure and fun when you try out the popular matching tile game Bejeweled! Bejeweled is a match-making game that features tiles of precious gems. Players must make matches of three or more to clear those tiles from the board and are awarded bonus points for using special gems. The round ends when the bar at the bottom of the screen is filled by scoring points.

Gameplay

Bejeweled requires the player to make a match of three or more identical gems in a horizontal or vertical row. This is done by switching two gems around to create a match. Gems can’t be switched around unless the result is a match made by one of them. This can soon make for a tricky game. Thankfully, there are several tricks players can use to clear more tiles from the board quicker.

Two types of rounds are availabe: normal and timed. The normal round lets you match gems at your leisure until you want to stop. The levels keep going unless the player quits, giving you an infinite number of puzzles to solve. The timed version starts the progress bar at halfway. Each match will move the bar along a little more, but the bar will start to decrease the longer the round goes on. When there are no available moves in either round, the game is over.

Making a match with a special gem results in a greater amount of tiles being removed and more points being earned. Special gems are marked by the increased glow around them. There’s also a bonus if you make an intersecting match where a horizontal and vertical match of the same gem type meet. This can trigger a cascade where several gems are eliminated all at once.

Review

It’s easy to see why players can become so addicted to Bejeweled. Everything about it drives you to keep playing. You get excited when you see gems fall perfectly into place, resulting in an explosion of tiles and bonus points that sometimes fire across your screen with a lightning bolt. The soundtrack itself sounds like you’re on a medieval adventure in a quest for the holy grail of gem matches. The gameplay itself is smooth and seamless, and the graphics are fairly high quality with glow animations to boot.

It’s especially epic when the game says “Level Complete” at the end of each round. It’s almost reminiscent of Mortal Kombat, just without the martial arts. However, you’ll feel like a ninja after playing Bejeweled. The thrill of blasting gem combinations is too much fun to resist. Several sequels have been made, but the original game remains a classic.