Bejeweled Blitz | Review

Bejeweled Blitz is a game that has reached a dizzying level of success, partly because it taps into one of the most fundamental elements of our society - the fact that us humans love collecting expensive goods.

The Facebook integrated spin-off of the series of downloadable 'Bejweled' PC games, the PopCap developed game has players embracing their money-loving human tendencies as you're tasked with matching arrays of shiny coloured gems in rows of three or more in an effort to collect coins, power ups and high scores.

Basic in its premise, you have to switch certain kinds of gems with the gems that are directly adjacent (no diagonal swapping) in order to get the gems to line up horizontally or vertically and in doing so, they disappear from the board and earn you points. Rows above the 3 gem line will have you rolling in the virtual moolah (in-game gold coins) as well as score points - the more in the line, the better. The highest scoring players will be able to strategise on the fly, using Bejweled Blitz board know how to shuttle jems from the top of the board to the required place in barely any time at all (a round of Bejewled Blitz lasts for just 60 seconds) - this is an essential tool if you want to get rich. Four gems in a row is fantastic but five has you earning a 'hypercube', which in turn allows you to eliminate all of the gems of a certain type, by switching it with one of the 'normal' gems that is adjacent to it.

The hypercube is just beginning of the power up madness as the nice pile of coins that you've amassed can be exchanged for various boosts to help you gain even more of the Bejeweled Blitz currencies. The five, relatively inexpensive boosts on offer (after you've unlocked them in a quest - more on that later) are as follows : Mystery Gem (puts a random special gem on the board at the beginning of the round), Detonator (detonates all of the special gems on the board), Scrambler (scrambles all of the gems on the board), +5 Seconds (adds five seconds to your time) and Bonus Multiplier (multiplies any point you earn once you've collected the power-up). You can take three of these into a round at a time, and they can be used in several rounds before running out. As well as these boosts, there are also the rather costly super-special powerups, Rare Gems, that will cost you well into the thousands (they'll set you back 30,000+ gold coins or more). Entitled with flashy names, such as "Blazing Steed" (turns several gems into firey, combustible, multiple gem destroying devices) and "Phoenix Prism", which "unleashes a fiery shockwave" and destroys every gem that is diagonal to it,, these gems don't come around very often but are key to your arsenal and will benefit you greatly, even if you aren't the best Bejeweled Blitz player.

Of course, you don't always have to splash your accumulated in-game cash in order to get the most out of Bejeweled Blitz - sometimes, the game rewards you with free, supercharged gems that cost you nothing and are equally as effective as the bought ones. Occassionaly, Bejewled Blitz will spit out multipliers (which come aorund when you manage to match up different groups of gems at the same time) or it will make some of the gems highly flammable, exploding verociously and obliterating many gems in their surrounding area once you have successfully matched the special gem with 2 or more normal gems of its kind. Plus there's the alternative of spending your real world accumulated cash but it's not too much of a grind to earn a lot of coins rather than paying for them.

As is the case with the established 'points are power' ideal that the game has going on, points are needed to establish a worthy high score, a total you'll want to post about on friends' Facebook walls to revel in the glory (or to boast). Bejeweled Blitz is a social gaming Facebook app of course, so this merciless mocking of your opponents is what fuels the gameplay. After you have completed a round, you are shown the leaderboard of your friends who are playing the game - Facebook states that 10,100,000 people are in on the super powered gem matching fun, so you're bound to have a few Bejeweled Blitz players on your friends list - and your rank amongst them is highlighted, along with your points and their's. The leaderboard resets every week and this only intensifies the addiction you will pick up playing this game.
You're also assigned mini-challenges and friends list related objectives that can only be completed by beating real life Bejeweled Blitz playing friends or one of the three AI PopCap characters - PopCap Bjorn, PopCap Dr. Mojo and PopCap Zombie - these of which pepper your leaderboard with low, easily beaten scores. One example of this is that by besting one of the cartoon-y PopCap characters that are listed on your friends list at the beginning of the game, you could unlock boosts. Your next task is to triumph at the top of the easy-peasy leaderboard, by knocking PopCap Bjorn (one of the aforementioned characters) off the top spot, which in turn allows you to unlock that Facebook friends Bejeweled Blitz leader board, giving you some opponents to challenge who are perhaps a bit more in your 'league'.

Other things you'll find from successfully utilising your gem matching prowess and your thrifty coin spending habits are that the game assigns you a title and a level. This level is built on by completing even more tasks which offer up bundles of XP as well as extra coinage. These level progression objectives are fairly simple to begin with, starting out with things like 'score 10,000 points' which, regardless of ability, could be completed easily with the help of the boosts that the game actually gives you at the beginning of the challenge as a beginner's bonus. You can also progress your level simply by playing a lot. According to the game "If you harnessed the hours spent playing Bejweled Blitz, you could build the Empire State Building in 6.3 days." so the chances are high that you'll be roped in into playing these during every waking (and hopefully non-working!) hour of the day and thus will be racking up those XP points like they're going out of fashion.

Luckily these competitive aims that Bejeweled Blitz is employing to whittle away at your free time are captiviating enough for you not to wonder 'why', but the cohesion of the features isn't always as smooth as you'd like it to be, with regular bumps occurring when you become overwhelmed with things to do and considering that the gameplay is as quick and simple as it is, this lack of meshing becomes glaringly apparent.

Despite all of this, the game is fun, there's no denying that there's much amusement to be had in the peculiar trait of wanting to hoard every single coin and coupled with the bright graphics of the rounds and the satisfying feeling of success it rewards you with as you topple your buddies of the leaderboard, this will keep you engaged for hours (or until you are forcibly removed from your computer by your peers for hogging the net.)

Because of the uncomfortableness that happens due to all of the tasks it piles onto your lap, Bejeweled Blitz receives an 8, instead of a 9. With a little refining of the mechanics, I see no reason why PopCap cannot make this the most addictive and enjoyful game in the social game space.

Click here to play Bejeweled Blitz.