Game Review: Bejeweled 2

by Adam Yan on August 5, 2008 at 11:36 pm

One of the most epic puzzle games in the twenty first century hands down is Diamond Mine, which most people recognize the newer name Bejeweled which had a sequel named Bejeweled 2. This game has been on most devices you could think of: PCs, Macs, PDAs and now in the more current times of the Apple iPhone OS. It’s been out for sometime since the launch of the App Store but hasn’t lost any gas still being a top contender of the “Top 25 Most Popular Paid Apps”.

There’s been many clones of Bejeweled in the past but PopCap Games have created this game as they legally have the name Bejeweled in their hands. For newcomers that don’t know what Bejeweled 2 is, (if they haven’t clued into online browser games in the past 7 years) it’s a simple puzzle game where you basically have to get matches of 3 or more same gems. Easy concept, easy pleasure and tons of addictiveness. It contains two gameplay modes: Classsic, a non stop game until the player has run out of moves and Timed, a player races against a timer bar advancing levels until the timer bar reaches 0 by not creating matches fast enough. It also has the options of disabling or modifying the sound and FX volume and a simple tutorial.

Bejeweled 2 runs pretty smooth. Crisp animations, sharp graphics and responsive jewels; just what you’d expect from Bejeweled 2. It has the same strategy and technique that you can apply on other systems such as explosives, cascades, etc. The basic game play is good as gold and extremely stable as it hosts no lag nor any other problems. But what makes this game such a gem is the little extras and fine details you uncover from playing over time. Such as the crisp background scenery, catchy background music and what I think is a must see, the animation video between switching levels. It’s something like a time portal you’re going through and is not controlled by the video player controls; it’s pretty cool seeing something like that run on an iPhone/iPod Touch. Oh and did I mention that it can play in landscape and portrait mode!

Currently, I’ve seen no flaws except the random crash and exit back to springboard error which happens to all apps at one point. I haven’t experienced any of the gem flaws while moving them like some players have reported. Though what I could ask for is maybe an extra game mode to be added on the iPhone/iPod Touch version of the game seems a bit blan and boring.

Could I bargain with the price? No way! This game is worth $9.99 for every penny. Just that little animation video between levels I’d pay $9.99 for; I could stare at that for days and still find it amusing.

Overall, I’d rate Bejeweled 2 an 8 out of 10 score for its clean and intiuitive gameplay, crisp and sharp images, amusing between levels animation/video, playbable both portrait and landscape and very stable structure. Furthermore, it’s a little blan only giving two gameplay modes and nothing out of the ordinary.

Here’s a bit of footage of Bejeweled 2 displaying a game mode and a couple extras.

2 Responses to “Game Review: Bejeweled 2”

emerican said:

August 5th, 2008 at 11:38 pm

i wish the iphone version had endless mode
David Brenneman said:

November 23rd, 2008 at 2:10 pm

Great game…just wish it would quit knocking out my wireless connection. I play it and within 15 minutes—being the only app running—and my wireless internet connection goes out until I reconnect again. Doesn’t happen with any other program that I run. Just this one.
I’m also running into a second weird issue. Played 12 games straight where the game has randomized so much that you cannot get past level 3. I’ve been as high as 83k points before. I’ve seen the wireless interruption happen with both the downloaded version & the CD version. Seems like there’s a flaw built into it somewhere.