For nearly ten years now, match-three game Bejeweled has been making gamers out of people who never thought they'd be part of what's generally considered geek culture. Popcap Games' blockbuster title has to date sold more than 25 mllion copies and with two hit sequels and two hit spinoffs, shows no sign of slowing down.
After all this time, it's hard to imagine something new could be done with the game but Popcap's latest offering, Bejeweled 3 manages to make the whole match-three concept fresh. Most importantly, the new 40-level Quest mode takes the title in an almost adventure game direction. In Quest mode, you help restore five different Bejeweled artifacts by completing a series of eight challenges. These consist of things like Diamond Mine, where you match three to dig into the earth and uncover gems and gold; Butterflies, where you match three in order to prevent colorful butterflies from rising to the top and being eaten by a spider and Poker, where you match three in order to deal yourself a winning hand. Other challenges are Gold Rush, Avalanche, Ice Storm, Balance and Sand Storm.
You're asked to restore five artifactst total by completing eight challenges per artifact and when you've successfully done it, you're rewarded with five beautiful jeweled items like a goblet, a throne or a book. You also unlock new modes to play outside of Quest mode. Of course, for Bejeweled purists, the game still has classic modes Zen, Lightning and um...Classic.
The soothing, trippy music in the game will be familiar if you've played the previous games but the new artwork is really spectacular. The new modes give ample opportunity to create new background scenes and Popcap's taken good advantage of that.
Bejeweled 3 is far and away my favorite in the series - fun, addictive, beautiful to look at, it'll give you hours and hours of match three fun.
For more info or to purchase Bejeweled 3, go to Popcap Games' official website.
Comments