but the chances are you'll have to work harder than you'd expect to find them. Cognito mode (by far the easiest to unlock), for example, amounts to little more than a score-based take on the Puzzle mode, complete with the exact same levels all over again, but without the Galaxy 'hub' to choose levels from. The shape of things This is what I see when I fall asleep.įour 'Mystery' modes remain locked away for the really advanced (and we do mean stupidly advanced) players to scalp, but are little more than variations on the rather excellent theme. In this deluxe version, there's even a few other variations on the theme, such as the Puzzle mode, which presents you with 80 levels of brain-teasing arrangements of blocks to try and clear up one by one, at your own pace, and complete with hints if you need them. If you can pull these off, then progression in the game will be so much easier.ĭepending on which mode you're playing, the premise will be slightly altered, with, for example, Action mode tasking you with a brutally ticking time limit, while others give you as long as you like (such as Classic and Endless modes) but dish out the Game Over screen if you no longer have any moves left. The big points, though, come through setting off chain reactions, and these are again, often down to the luck of the draw, but if you're good enough at the game you can sometimes see them coming far enough in advance to make your own luck. 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. 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.
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