Bejeweled Blitz Review

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Game Description

The Fastest Match-Making Game Ever

Bejeweled is back and it's ready to test your matching skills like never before with the Bejeweled Blitz download! Like always, it's your job to group as many matching gems as you possibly can. The only difference is that you now have to fire them all off in rapid succession. This is a high stress situation; time is short and the clock is ticking fast. Keep your eyes open and your finger on the screen because you're going to be in for a bumpy ride with Bejeweled Blitz.

Feel the Blitz

Forget most everything you know about classic Bejeweled gameplay. You no longer have the luxury to match gems together at your own pace. Bejeweled Blitz is fast, furious and it won't let you forget it!

•    Match as many gems as you can in under a minute.
•    Make a line of four gems and form an explosive Flame Gem.
•    Put five gems together and create a deadly and devastating Hypercube.
•    Match gems into an L or T-shaped formation to make a powerful row-razing and column-clearing Star Gem.
•    And much more!

Get the Power

If your jewel-matching abilities are just no match for the clock, then consider enhancing your game with one of several distinct Boosters.

•    Blow up all on-screen special gems with the Detonator.
•    Shuffle the board using the Scrambler.
•    Add a random special gem to the board with the Mystery Special Gem.
•    Give yourself more time with the +5 Seconds booster.
•    Get a chance to improve your score at the start with the x2 Multiplier.
•    And more!

More Greatness to be Had

There's more to Bejeweled Blitz than fast-paced matching. Extra games and challenges will test your skills in all new ways and earn you even more substantial rewards.

•    Win extra tokens on the Bejeweled Blitz slot machine.
•    Complete the Daily Challenge to get even more goodies.
•    Compete with your friends on Facebook, and prove your superiority to all of them.
•    And more!

Are You Ready?

Bejeweled Blitz is many things. It's fast, challenging, easy to learn, incapable of easing up, and completely free. With so much to offer at so little cost, it's easy to see why it is one of the most widespread mobile games ever devised. If you haven't joined the madness already, then get the Bejeweled Blitz free download for Android or iOS, and feel the burn!

Bejeweled Blitz Review

Beguiled by Bejeweled Blitz

The Bejeweled franchise has long been synonymous with casual gaming ever since its debut at the start of the millennium. By extension, it has also been one of the most widespread and influential mobile games ever released. While the series is still going strong, it often faces one common criticism: it hasn't really seen any notable change since its inception.

In some ways, Bejeweled Blitz is guilty of that. It still boasts the same basic gameplay for better or worse after all, and it won't be changing anyone's mind about match-three mechanics anytime soon. However, that's selling it awfully short, for it shows remarkable change where it counts and revamps the formula into a far more fast-paced experience. Combined with some really good presentation that makes things feel even more frantic, and you have an incredibly fun game that feels surprisingly fresh.

Speeding Things Up

Bejeweled Blitz is a Bejeweled game through and through. It looks like one and plays like one. You swap gems around on the screen, group them into rows and columns of at least three, and watch them turn to dust before your eyes. However, Blitz differentiates itself from the pack by imposing a strict 60-second time limit on you.

It's a simple thing, but a very big one. The clock puts you under a lot of pressure and forces you to really use your spatial awareness to find those matches when you can. Despite that, it's not a mindless game; you still need to make strategic matches if you want to attain a score worth anything. The big way to pull that off is to form special gems.

There are several kinds of special gems that all have spectacular effects. Putting four matching jewels together will create a Flame Gem, which explodes when it gets grouped up and takes out many surrounding stones in the process. Putting five gems together will make a Hyper Cube, which can then be swapped with any gem on the board to zap out all gems of that type at once. Finally, there's the Star Gem, which is a tad tricky to form, but has the awesome ability to wipe out both an entire row and column in one go. There is also an assortment of score multiplier gems that give you more points when they are destroyed. They may not be as exciting as the rest, but they are a welcome sight nonetheless.

It all adds up to make Blitz an almost panic-inducing game, which is a far cry from the usually relaxing pace that Bejeweled offers. The short time limit keeps you on your toes and constantly forces you into making tough decisions on the fly. Do you use a special gem immediately to bolster your score now, or do you wait so you can combine it with another special gem? Regardless of what you do, the fact that Bejeweled Blitz can be played in such small amounts of time mean it's easy to tell yourself that you'll play just one more round, only to eventually realize that you've lost an hour of your life that you'll never get back.

Match-Three Made Awesome

Time limits certainly weren't anything new by the time Bejeweled Blitz showed up, but this app went the extra mile to ensure that it felt just as frantic as it played. While at a glance, it may not look all that distinct from the usual match-three puzzler, including its own predecessors, delving into its gameplay will show how much work the folks at PopCap put in to get the adrenaline pumping. 

If nothing else, one incentive for using special gems is just so you can watch their spectacular effects. Flame Gems explode in brilliant bursts of color, Hyper Cubes zap electricity at all the offending rocks, and Star Gems unleash an immense surge of lightning capable of reducing everything to ash. Seeing all this destruction light up your screen is truly a thing of beauty, especially if you can manage to get several things to go off simultaneously. The extra points you'll earn are nice, but the animation is the real reward; it's just that good.

However, visuals aren't everything. Props also have to go to Bejeweled Blitz's sound design. A catchy and almost heroic-sounding techno tune will accompany your stone-swapping for one thing, and you'll constantly be encouraged, warned and informed by a voice that sounds suspiciously like Optimus Prime of Transformers fame. Combined with the satisfying booms of exploding rocks, and you have a product that makes the simple act of grouping matching gems together far more awesome than it has any right to be.

Unobtrusive

Like all free-to-play games, the Bejeweled Blitz free download comes with some strings attached. The good news is that it's one of the least intrusive games out there. There are no pesky energy meters to limit how long you can play for one thing. You also won't be forced to sit through any ads or movies.

What it does have is a variety of boosters and alternative game modes that can only be experienced with in-game currency, which can be obtained via normal gameplay or with real money. A lot of these things are actually pretty interesting, especially in how they're handled. Boosters have a limited number of uses per game, and you can only equip three at a time. They're pretty varied too; one will set off every special gem on the board at your discretion, while another will scramble the entire grid at the push of a button.

Some items are very expensive, but the more vital things, like the boosters, are priced at reasonable rates that you can easily meet by just playing normally. Unless you really are the competitive type who must beat all your friends' scores on Facebook, you can safely ignore the in-app purchases and enjoy Bejeweled Blitz on its own.

Conclusion: A Match Made in Heaven

The only real con about Bejeweled Blitz is that it shares the same weakness pretty much all match-three puzzle games have; luck plays a huge factor. Sometimes, you'll get a string of powerful cascade combos and easy-to-make special gems that will increase your score a hundredfold. Other times, you might be tempted to throw your device into the nearest wall when you can't find an opportunity to even use the one Flame Candy you've managed to make.

However, many just consider that part and parcel of the whole match-three experience. Compared to most everything else on the market, Bejeweled Blitz stands out as a shiny gem, and can arguably even be considered the crown jewel of the Bejeweled series. It's fast, it's addictive, it looks good, it sounds great, it's a lot of fun, and it doesn't need to cost you anything. If you haven't done so yet, download this app right now and play some free Bejeweled Blitz already!

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