Bejeweled recently saw two simultaneous releases: Bejweled, which features three different modes for a dollar, and Bejeweled Blitz, a freemium game with one mode in which you have a minute to score as many points as you can by matching gems. If you’re turned away from the long, drawn out nature of the original Bejeweled, then Blitz is for you.
The match-3 gameplay in Bejeweled Blitz gameplay is completely unchanged from the original Bejeweled. You swap adjacent tiles in order to line up three gems of the same color in a row. Matching four or five gems results in special gems that can clear extra spaces. Additionally, there are gems that multiply your score, coin gems that net you currency to buy boosts, and rare gems that can make your score skyrocket in the unlikely event that they appear. The fast pace of the game means you must think on your feet when choosing which gems to swap, as opposed to thinking long and hard to set up massive combos.
Burning down the gems.
Bejeweled Blitz is all about topping your score and the scores of your Facebook friends. If you’ve played the Facebook version of the game before, your scores will sync across both platforms. Unfortunately there are no Game Center leaderboards; so competitions against your iOS buddies is out of the picture, a shame considering how easy this would have been for PopCap to implement.
Perks in the form of “boosts” can be bought for in-game coins. The boosts do various things like add time, give you a special or multiplier gem, shuffle the gems twice per game, and detonate all special gems at once. When you buy a boost it lasts for three games before expiring, and you can have up to three activated at any one time. If you run out of coins and don’t want to collect more by playing the game, you can buy more with real-life money. One final way to get coins is the daily spin in which you spin a slot machine in an attempt to get a large pile of coins.
Blitz is as good as Bejeweled gets. Assuming you are willing to pair the game with your Facebook account, this freebie is a no-brainer download.
