There’s little doubt that Bejeweled was the biggest puzzle game since Tetris, but now after over five years since this sequel was originally released, does it have enough to offer on Android?
Bejeweled’s been around for a decade now and it’s solely to blame for the droves of match-three games that came out for years following its release. The series hasn’t been popular without reason, the simple gameplay and visual style got the attention of many non gamers long before the world became addicted to the games on Facebook. The recently released Bejeweled 2 on Android plays in the same way as the first: move gems on a grid to try to connect three or more in a row. Upon matching a row of gems, more come down from the top of the screen allowing you to set up chained combos, intentionally or not. Should you match more than three gems you’ll get a power gem that will either destroy the gems around it, or if you match five gems you’ll get a hyper cube that’ll destroy all gems of a color. The sequel has a couple of extra game modes beyond matching gems until you run out of moves but these are simple- a timed mode and an endless mode where there is no danger of time or moves running out.
The premise is as simple as ever but it does make for a highly addicting pick up and play game and the developers were smart allowing you to quit out of the game whenever you want and resume your save on each of the different game modes, it’s a simple thing but one that is overlooked by many developers and it’s indicative of the polish that this game has. The sound and graphics of puzzle games is rarely worth mentioning but Bejeweled 2 goes the extra distance and provides a great visual and audio experience. The jaunty acoustic music coupled with the flashes and explosions on the screen create a great combination that’ll put you in a gem matching trance.
There’s not a lot else that can be said about Bejeweled, it’s a fantastically made match-three game, but it’s still a match-three game. It would have been nice to see the puzzle mode from the original PC version and the one minute rush mode of Bejeweled Blitz included for the new $0.99 price tag although even with only three modes and no friend leaderboards, Bejeweled 2 is still $0.99 well spent.
When you’re ready, head over to the Android Market and download this game by clicking or scanning the QR Code below.
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