Astraware Bejeweled 2 Review

By: Saravana Kumar Paulraj

January 11, 2006

Thanks to Mohd for providing me another opportunity to write and article for an application for the PPC. This time it’s for a game. The game is Astraware Bejeweled 2

Introduction

When I bought my PDA2k, the first thing I looked into was the ‘games’ the device has got in it. It was loaded with the basic games as all know (Jawbreaker, Solitaire). I was little disappointed. I use my PDA for the normal office applications and other things. Also I wanted to use it as a time-pass device with some games in it. Those made me look into the web for games. I wanted the game that will make me think that I have not ‘lost’ time in playing a game

One such game I found interesting is the Bejeweled 2 from Astraware. To begin with, this is the basic, jewel matching game with its own options and complications.

The Game

As the name says this is a game of ‘jewels’. The objective of the game is to ‘combine’ the jewels together (3 or more at a time), in horizontal or vertical fashion and gain points. The more you can join the more at move the more will be the points awarded.

The game has its own settings and different versions you can play with.

First things first

This is a game, which comes in the full screen mode. This gives more concentration (really) on the game, and uses the top and bottom band in the normal display – which results in better graphics.

Receiving of the SMS / calls are taken care, the game goes to a ‘pause’ mode when there is any other activity in the device with respect to the ‘phone’ functionality.

This is played in the ‘offline’ mode, and you done need internet connection as the regular PC based version of this bejeweled game. So, you can play without worrying about the GPRS / WiFi connection.

The game occupies 3.20 MB in the Ram when it is running and 3.43 MB in the storage, which really should not be a problem for any PPC even if it is a lower version device. The game runs smooth even I had loaded with more running programs in my RAM.

Don’t worry that you receive a call or you want to get busy with something else (aargh!! Work comes into picture), the game and its scores are saved when you close the device, which allows you to continue.

Ok, what if you need more people to play the game, and you don’t want then to enter their name for your half played game? This game supports profile. So you can ask him/her to use their game profile and play their game.

Playing the Game

As you already know, it’s a game of ‘joining’ / ‘pairing’ of as many jewels (same ones) as possible in the screen. Once the jewels are joined, you get points and the ‘joined’ ones vanish from the screen. The gap is filled back by the new jewels, and you will have to continue playing as long as possible or till you face the target.

The modes of the game are,

1. Classic - a normal game as described
2. Puzzle – The screen is not re-filled once the jewels are pared. So, objective is to clear the screen, with the best possible steps.


3. Action – race the game against time.
4. Endless – go on and on, on the screen until you get a call or until someone taps on your head and asks you to do something else.

The Help

Yes, the game comes with the online help in itself. I mean, if you can’t find a next move, click on the ‘?’ icon in the screen, and you will be given with the pointer on the screen telling what will be the next move. Of course, this is with some price to pay, your points / score is detected depending on the game mode.

The game also comes with loads of hints before you start the game. If the hints are enabled, they start coming whenever we join a bunch of jewels on the screen. It's pretty cool when you start the game for first time before we become an expert.

Settings

The illustrated picture will say what the topics really mean by them,

Sound

Graphics

Profile

As I said before, the user playing game can change to ‘his game’. Just tap on the ‘user name’ on the top before starting the game. Then you can select which player to select to play. Then continue on the personalized game.

Time & battery

Yes, the current time and the battery status are shown on the top of the screen above the jewels, as a reminder.

Conclusion

First I thought this as ‘yet another game’ to be installed in the device. Then I found that this is interesting and worth buying game.

The game can show us the played statistics to access ourselves and also allows uploading the high scores.