

Five of a kind, though, is really where it's at, allowing you generate a Hyper Cube to wipe out all gems on the grid of any coloured gem adjacent to it, but hetting these in the first place requires either a lot of determination, or a slice of luck. Four of a kind (or creating an 'L' shape of identical gems), meanwhile, leaves one gem behind that explodes when matched with the appropriate colour, taking out all those in its immediate blast radius, and setting off chain reactions in its wake. Just matching up three of a kind won't get you very far, as you really need to work out tactics to help you build up the points that will fill the progress bar that will get you onto the next level. Three, the magic number It's raining gems, hallelujah.īut it's never as simple as it looks.

As lines of three or more match up the gems explodes, so new ones rain down from the top of the screen to fill the breach, often setting off chain reactions and high scoring bonanzas into the bargain. Based on an eight by eight grid, the game amounts to little more than frantically scouring said grid in order to match three or more of a kind by switching adjacent tiles (or in this case, gems) around horizontally or vertically. Be warned.Įxplaining it to newcomers never sounds that exciting, but bear with us. Once you start switching those tiles around and matching up colour, it's pretty unlikely you'll ever be able to stop. In terms of puzzle greatness, it's probably the only game to rival Tetris for its stultifying, obsessively addictive qualities and maddening brilliance. Quite how it could translate to a joypad we had immediate concerns about, though.Īs a game concept, Bejeweled is absolute unadulterated, unquestionable, mind-bending genius. It was one of the few games that almost seemed made for the DS' touch screen, and even now we're unlikely to leave home without it.
#Bejeweled 2 deluxe too big on screen free
Initial impression of it being little more than an overpriced, subtle reworking of Bejeweled (in itself a free Flash game) were swept away. Famously, it's the only game in Eurogamer's history that the same reviewer has felt the need to re-assess because the penny soon dropped that something this addictive deserved better than its initial score. How many hours did you lose to Zoo Keeper last year? 10? 20? 100? Who's even counting? Maybe you're still playing it in lunch breaks and on commutes, busily trying to conquer all the modes so you can finally get a Time Attack score worthy of the name.
