Bejeweled Blitz LIVE - The Game Journal Review

Bejeweled Blitz LIVE is a fresh take on a puzzle game that I'm going to just assume you've heard of. Why am I comfortable in making such assumptions? Bejeweled games have sold more than 25 million copies and have been downloaded more than 150 million times. It's a huge series. You can play some version of the game on pretty much any device you own. Bejeweled has become the most well recognized puzzle game this side of Tetris.

If you are one of the three people on earth who haven't played the game, here's how it works: The game is played on a board in which there is an eight by eight grid of gems laid across it. Points are scored, and gems are removed by matching a minimum of three like-colored gems in a row either vertically or horizontally. When you match four or more gems at a time, or use one gem to match two different lines of gems you get special gems and cubes which score you more points either through score multipliers or by eliminating non-matched cubes in the area when the explode. There is also a "Twist" mode in which you rotate a group of four gems clockwise or counter clockwise in an attempt to match gems. I prefer "Classic" mode to "Twist" but I appreciate it's there for those who like it. It's nice additional content.

What Bejeweled Blitz LIVE brings to the proverbial table is a social aspect that was missing in the Bejeweled 2 allowing you to play one-on-one matches against other players, both locally and online, in which you'll compete in three different categories which are Score, Style and Amps. Take two out of the three categories and you take the match. The best two out of three scoring system is interesting rather than just giving the match to the person with the highest score, though I don't remember a match where the person with the lower score actually bested their opponent in more than one category.

You can also play in a Party Mode with up to sixteen other players. Iin this Mode, you're not actually competing with anyone but yourself, though you can see the progress of the other players on a pretty vague graph on the left hand side of the screen which shows the respective player pictures of each person you're playing with and how they relate to one another in the scoring of their matches. After playing countless matches, I'm still not sure how the scoring graph really works. You can chat with the other players, as well, setting up private parties or playing alongside the public.

The biggest difference between Bejewled Blitz LIVE and its predecessors is that this is a game built for speed. Each match is a timed affair, which lasts for only sixty seconds. With this rushed pace, the controls have also gotten a makeover as you now use the face button to move the gems rather than holding down a face button and using the stick. This new way of controlling the game only took a moment to come to grips with, and the benefit in speed became clear quite quickly. The fast pace of the matches makes this an easy game to pick up and play but a hard game to put down. Knowing that your investment is going to be a minute per match, made me want to keep playing again and again. I really like the quick matches as it makes this game less intimidating to jump into than a normal game of Bejeweled.

Scoring for each match igoes toward cumulative experience points or XP and there are Leaderboards which will show you where your highest single match score and XP rank against  both the public and those on your friends list weekly and all-time. The social aspect of the game is very much a part of the presentation, often reminding you of where you stand in relation to those on your friends list."Twist" mode also has its own scoreboards.

I really like Bejeweled Blitz LIVE. The fast paced nature of the game suits my attention span, the alterations to the controls have served this style of game well and the Leaderboard integration is very good. The social aspects of the game are good enough that, I automatically choose Party Mode because it feels comfortable and connected. The short bursts of gameplay are deceptive and addicting, with "One more match" often turning into twenty or thirty. Bejeweled Blitz LIVE is recommended, as it's a game I can see myself going back to it again and again.