Solitaire Blitz Review

In-app purchases become tempting, instead, when one runs out of lives and wants to continue playing. It might not sound like it now, but Solitaire Blitz remains the only Facebook game that I have ever paid for extra bonuses. On iOS, however, Solitaire Blitz isn't quite as addictive. Welcome to Solitaire Bliss! Enjoy free Solitaire games like Klondike, Spider Solitaire, and Freecell.Don't forget to check out the special features - solvable-only game mode, statistics tracking, multiple and unique card sets and backgrounds and lots of other options, you can even zoom in and out the game's board to make the cards smaller or larger.

• Publisher:PopCap
• Genre:Family
• Released: 20 Mar, 2013
• Size: 176.9 MB
• Price: FREE!

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.

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.

Screenshots

First off, I’m incredibly happy with how this game looks. Then again, does PopCap ever make a bad looking game? Nah, that’s impossible for them.

The visuals, including the cards themselves, look fantastic and sharp on Retina screens. The music is also good, and the sound effects are quirky and add a layer of personality to the game.So what is Solitaire Blitz? Think of regular solitaire, where you have the deck of cards at the top and you must clear out the cards that are on the board by putting them in order. Except, in Solitaire Blitz, your goal is to clear out the piles of cards by getting them all at the top, and you do this by playing cards that are higher or lower than the top cards. This can continue until you are out of playable cards, at which point you can tap on the deck to bring up new cards to add, and repeat the process.

To win in Solitaire Blitz, it’s the same as in regular solitaire: you need to clear out all of the card piles that you have. Of course, since it’s Blitz, you only have 60 seconds.It will start out with one card at the top, which may be a bit difficult. But as you play a round, you will end up with two and then three cards at the top, giving you more options and opportunity for matching cards.

To play your cards, just tap on them. You also earn more points if you’re faster, and play cards consecutively, without any pause, just like you do in Bejeweled Blitz.Keeping in line with the Blitz family, Solitaire Blitz also has power-ups for you to use to make the game easier. These include items like mines for clearing out your current cards, extra time, extra cards, and more Jokers (these are wildcards).Of course, these power-ups will cost you coins each time you want to use them, and unfortunately, they only last for one game, unlike three like those in Bejeweled Blitz. Coins are earned at the end of each round in the form of “treasures,” which you tap on to collect.

Each treasure will be worth a varying amount of coin. As you play, you will also be rewarded with different looking card decks, which you can select if you are tired of the default look (there’s one with a cat!).

Solitaire Blitz also has Game Center support for leaderboards and 19 achievements, so there’s plenty of replay value in the game.This is also a social game, meaning you can connect to Facebook to compete with all of your friends who also play the game. Currently, it does not seem like my friends know of this game, since I don’t see much competition with my score just yet.The biggest drawback of the game is the fact that you require “energy” to play. I know that this is due to EA owning PopCap, and they are infamous for ruining their games with in-app purchases. You start out with five energy (and maybe some extra ones if you are lucky), and each game will cost one energy to play. Once these are depleted, you will either have to wait for it to replenish (after a few minutes or so) or buy more through in-app purchases. I’m really annoyed by this implementation, because I would like to be able to play as much as I want, as I do with Bejeweled Blitz. Of course, this can also be a good thing, because then I won’t waste an hour or two just playing this game.

Yeah, let’s go with that.Despite the annoying energy system and tons of in-app purchases, I’m still enjoying Solitaire Blitz. It’s a refreshing new twist on the classic card game that we all know and love, and it looks great and has a lot of charm to it too.I recommend giving Solitaire Blitz a try, since you don’t have to spend money to enjoy the game.

Little Nemo: The Dream Master Action, Adventure, Fantasy Video game released September 1990 Nemo journeys to Slumberland to rescue Morpheus, the king of Slumberland, from the clutches of the evil Nightmare King. Little Nemo: The Dream Master. The full game, taking no hits. Played continuously through: Dreams 1-3 Dreams 4-7 Dream 8. Emulator: Nestopia. A group of dated appliances embarks on a journey to the city to find its master after being abandoned in its cabin in the woods. Stars: Jon Lovitz, Timothy Stack, Timothy E. Day An evil witch banishes a flower loving troll named Stanley, to New York City, where he befriends two young children. Little Nemo: The Dream Master (known as Pajama Hero Nemo (パジャマヒーロー NEMO, Pajama Hīrō Nīmō) in Japan) is a platform game released on the NES in 1990 by Capcom. It is based on the Japanese animated film, Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland from Tokyo Movie Shinsha, which itself is based on the comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay.

It’s available in the.Ah, if only PopCap wasn’t bought by EA one can dream, right?