Kate Reviews: Bejeweled Blitz

Commercial break? Time to Blitz!

 I played this game on: Apple iPhone 4S          I bought this game for: FREE

Pros

• Quick playtime
• Great graphics & audio
• Good updates
• Occasional freebies

Cons

•  It's not perfect but I don't think there's any "cons" 

Bejeweled Blitz is a match 3, jewel-popping game by PopCap.  Bejeweled Blitz is one of the first games I installed to my iPhone when I got it a year ago and I still play it nearly every day.  I am constantly challenged by my own high scores as well as my friends' scores.  Scores reset every week so even if I top the leaderboard this week, I can be challenged to top it again the next.  Conversely, if I don't do well during a week, I always have another chance to rise from the ashes.  Your high-score of the week is the one posted for friends to admire and try to topple.  Unlike so many mobile games, you can compete against a friend's score without having to wait for them to play a turn.  I also love that scores aren't cumulative so whether you play one great game or hundreds of rounds per week, you have the opportunity to post the high-score.  What's even better is that every game you play, gold coins are earned which you can accumulate to use to buy bonus boosts.  Part of what keeps me playing a few games every day is that coin collection which I usually use at the start of one game per week to try and get the highest score!

As you can see by this picture, I have accumulated 192,350 gold coins and am spending 18,000 of them to buy three boosts for my next game.  Each boost lasts 3 games.  There are also Mega Boosts which last one round and cost a lot of coins.  Today, there was a freebie Mega booster called Blazing Steed and you can see the red jewel for it at the top of the screen.  There are several Mega Boosts with different effects and they pop up randomly before you begin a game so you can choose whether to buy it with your coins or not. This just adds to the strategy of the game.  One of the best ways to get those precious gold coins is to do the Daily Spin every day.  You can win 500 or a million!

Bejeweled Blitz has done a good job of updating the game over the year I have played it on my iPhone (before that I was playing it on my PC via Facebook).  The graphics and interface are better, the audio is better, and they have even added a couple of new and fun Mega Boosts just to change things up a bit.  You can play online and compete against friends, or offline and compete against the Pop Cap characters high scores.  If you play offline and then later get online, your score will update, no need to try to do it again.  There are occasional hiccups with online/offline updating but it usually works pretty smoothly.  Your score also translates to the Facebook app as well so if you play on both, you will have the same score on both.  The Facebook app has different boosts available and different challenges that you can earn coins from and of course there are gifts from friends that aren't available on the iPhone version.

Bejeweled Blitz is one of the few games that I have many friends that also play.  This is in large part due to the Facebook inter-connectivity as well as it is just a simple, fun, and quick game to play!  Each game is 1 minute (thus the "Blitz" part) which differentiates it from other Bejeweled games.  I have other Bejeweled games on many platforms and I actually like this one the best.  I often find myself playing a round or two between commercial breaks, while waiting for pictures to upload, while letting the oven preheat for dinner (or water to start boiling!), and even while waiting in line at the store.

You can check this game out on iTunes HERE