Review: Bejeweled 2 HD
Score:
88%
Bejeweled 2? After all this time, only now does it get a review? Yep, and that's for two reasons. The first is the rather obvious "we haven't done it yet" and the second is that there may have been many java versions from EA, there might have been a raft of clones that have come close, but this is the licenced Popcap version, with the "HD" optimised for Symbian tag, and given the playing field of the Ovi Store, I suspect this is the one that many people will flock to.
Version Reviewed: 1.00 (27)
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For those of you who haven't come across the idea of Bejeweled before, you have a big grid full of jewels, and your only move is to swap a pair of adjacent jewels. If that results in a line of three, four or five matching jewels, they will disappear, fresh jewels will fall in from the top, and you carry on playing until either you finish the level (with a full power bar) or there are no more moves.
Along the base of the screen you have the power bar - which fills up as you make matches of three, four or five jewels. Naturally the more lines you make, the more you score, and the faster the power bar fills up.
EA have done a top-notch job in this HD version. Everything runs at a fantastically smooth speed, when you touch one of the jewels to switch it with another it twinkles and spins round, and when you start a chain reaction of disappearing lines (creating more lines), there's a crash of sound effects that makes the twinkling graphics look and feel solid, and hand you a huge aural sense of accomplishment.
And the maddening addictiveness of Bejeweled is there. Of course, a game like this needs the right balance of speed, grid size and complexity and by being the original, EA can use the formula perfected over the years by PopCap. In short, if there's a sweet spot for games like this, they've found it.
Being handed the "2" moniker means that some tweaks have been done to the basic game. If you want the pure experience with no changes, go for the endless game (or the "zen like state that is the endless game", according to the EA website). There's no time pressure, you just play along.
Classic is, as it states, if you're looking for the game with level up options once you fill the power bar. And finally you have Action mode, which puts you against the clock to finish each level before the power bar runs out.
There's one irritation right at the end - both on the menu, and when I exit, there's an option to see "more games". I think that's fair in a trial version of the application, but after paying for the full game, perhaps just seeing it once on the first run after purchase is enough?
But I can forgive all of that. This is a top notch version of Bejeweled - and just because it's an official version doesn't mean that's guaranteed (I'm looking at you, Flight Control). Thankfully, EA have got it right for Bejeweled. Yes, strictly speaking it's Bejewelled 2 HD, but like many franchises, they are all basically the same game. If you want some tile swapping and line making action, this is as close to the original web version as you are going to get. Recommended very strongly to everyone.
-- Ewan Spence, Sept 2011.
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at