Solitaire Blitz Review
PROS
- A really nice spin on Solitaire.
- For a free game, it's not too aggressive trying to get you to spend money.
CONS
- You can literally blindly tap your way to victory.
- The worm sound when your time is almost up is unfortunate.
VERDICT
While Solitaire Blitz is a great new spin on a gaming classic, there's nothing to stop the player spamming their way to victory, and thus the experience gets old fast.
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It's been a while since we've seen something from Popcap Games. Once having a reputation for casual yet fiercely addictive titles, many of which received praise from the mainstream gaming media, the company's output has been kind of sparse and quiet these last few years. Well it seems they're still with us having released Solitaire Blitz, a spin on the Windows gaming classic that emphasises social play and leaderboards. Yes, solitaire as a social game. The irony wasn't lost on us either.
Now instead of playing strictly like a game of Solitaire, this plays more like Solitaire mixed with Uno. You have stacks of cards you need to get to the bottom of, and a card pile up top. Whatever card is on that pile, you can tap either the card above or below it if that card exists on the playing field. For example, if it's a seven, you can tap six or eight, and if it's an ace, you can tap the two or king as aces wrap around. You have sixty seconds to try to eliminate all the stacks, which have treasure hidden under them (which can be tapped on at the end of each game to uncover how much they're worth in silver coins), and if there are no available moves you can flip over a new card up top. Where the game gets really interesting is once the multiple card piles and boosts enter into it. If you tap a card with a key on it, you unlock another card pile up the top, so now essentially a second or third way to clear the stacks reveals itself. Add in time bonuses, score multipliers, and buying new boosts such as magnets that pull cards to the top of the stacks, and you could see how this could become a very engrossing game.
Here's one very glaring problem though; the game can be not only won, but won with a sizable score by just mindlessly tapping cards. You see there is no penalty for selecting a card that doesn't work, so essentially you can just go up and down the stacks tapping away until solutions reveal themselves, only swiping over a new card when you're without a possible move. Now obviously this too can backfire as you only have so many cards in reserve, but if you save the jokers in the deck for this occasion, you can win almost any game with a huge amount of time left of the clock, and with a score that's certainly nothing to sneeze at. Granted if you're playing to hit the top of the leaderboards or are invested in the game itself, you are not going to be doing this, but allowing such an easy way to win is quite an oversight.
Solitaire Blitz is certainly fun. Popcap have a knack for that in their games. The under the sea mermaid aesthetic will probably turn some off, as well as the easy way the game can be played... but there is a fun idea here. One that should keep one entertained for some time, even if it's only to play every now and then when you have a couple minutes to kill.
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