Bejeweled 3

Ah, Bejeweled. How I wasted countless hours into your gem-busting escapades. So, we're back for a third round of Popcap's legendary star prodigy. Bejeweled 3. Now, you might be asking me this, "Max, how is Bejweled 3 different than the other Bejeweled titles." Well, all around, it's the same game. Yep, match three alike gems or more and score points and form special power gems. Blah blah. But, there IS a difference in this incarnation. What is it? Well, I'll give you a rundown. Besides the same old classic game mode. You have a big variety of other modes, that gives the series a breath of fresh air. There's now a quest mode in this Bejewled. Which has you completing different mini-games of sorts. Such as, "Alchemy", where your goal is to turn the entire grid into gold by making combinations. And, "Stratamax", which just requires you to break a certain amount of gems in a certain amount of time. And you have to complete a certain number of "quests" before you can move on to the next tier of "quests". Simple, eh? Not exactly. Despite, a lot of these mini-games are fairly easy that anyone can grasp on to. There is the occasional game that is pretty difficult. For example, the poker mini-game. Yes, poker in Bejeweled. Your job here is to make poker cards by combining gems. You have your standard poker hands, like, a pair, two-pair, and a flush, etc. These hands are all worth points. And your objective is to make a certain amount of points under a time limit. a lot easier said than done. All in all, the quest mode gives the game a pretty good depth of challenge when you're not playing the easier game modes. Which leads me to the next game mode. Zen. Zen is solely based on relaxation. No time limits, no goals, just you and the gems. Zen mode features these relaxation methods. First off, there's "Breath Modulation" that displays an audio and visual feedback to help regulate your breathing for ultimate relaxation. And, ambient sounds that play in the background. Now, this is where Zen mode gets strange. The game also features, "Binaural Beats", which requires you to wear headphones. When this feature is turned on, it will begin to play different frequencies in each ear to help your brain enter different relaxation states. I will warn you, turning this feature on will make the game disclaim you about the ill-affects that Binaural Beats can induce. Such as, mood changes, dizziness, muscle twitches, drowsiness and hallucinations. Crazy! When you're done fooling around in Zen Mode, The game also has a "Lightning" mode, which has you competing for the highest score under one minute. The sound effects are pretty identical to the older sequels. But the music is exceptional. And the game boasts a pretty significant improvement in graphics. Supporting high resolutions and 3D accelerated visuals. (Pretty much meaning, a lot of eye candy.)

Despite being targeted towards the casual demographic. I find even the hardest of gamers can't resist playing a round or two. In a nutshell, Bejewled 3 has a pretty good variety of modes that will most likely challenge old players of the franchise and the new. Likewise, I'm giving Bejewled 3 a solid five out of five. The game is pretty cheap. For twenty standard American United States Dollars I'll definitely recommend this if you just want to spend five minutes busting gems, or the entire day. Just buy it already.