More Solitaire Than You Can Shake A Deck Of Cards At
I’m not entirely sure what the ‘X’ of Jewel Match Solitaire X represents. This is not the tenth Jewel Match game on the Xbox (we’re up to eight, by my count, and the last numbered release was ‘2’). This isn’t risqué or sexually daring, and Elon Musk hasn’t decided to rename it.
Perhaps the X is meant to represent a dramatic overhaul to the Jewel Match formula. If that’s the case, then it’s an oversell, as Jewel Match Solitaire X is only a very slight progression on what came before. Which, of course, is very much a Jewel Master thing. If anyone was expecting revolutions from Jewel Match Solitaire X then they were invested in the wrong franchise.
A Slight Slide To The Right
The headline inclusion for Jewel Match Solitaire X is ‘sliding puzzles’. These aren’t in the main game proper – perhaps that will happen in future editions, if the fanbase likes them. They are instead accessed from the main game menu, and they bring a kind of conveyor-belt effect to the solitaire card-matching. They move left to right, and if you remove cards from the leftmost side of the screen, the game window will shuffle to the right. You’re moving through a long train of cards – and we do mean long, since the mode includes a huge number of cards – until you reach the end and mop up the final stragglers.
We’ve played similar game modes in mobile titles like Disney Solitaire, and they work equally fine here. It can be a little frustrating as you wait for a card that will clear the lone Ace that is holding everything up. But that’s not particularly different from Solitaire as a whole. There’s almost always one card that scuppers you. Mostly it’s just refreshing to be thinking in different terms, as you prioritise stuff on the left over stacks of cards.
It’s not quite enough to justify a new iteration of the Jewel Match series. But to its credit, Jewel Match Solitaire X has a fine line in ‘more’ to make up for the lack of innovation. Jewel Match Solitaire X is gargantuan. It’s almost silly how much stuff is here. A fair amount of it doesn’t relate to Solitaire at all, and is just tossed onto the heap to make it bigger.
Spending Entire Days In The Campaign
The main game, and the one we come back to most, is a sequence of Solitaire levels that are unlocked linearly. This is the same structure that Jewel Match Solitaire has always had, and it’s relaxing to dip into five or six levels every so often. By playing the Spider Solitaire games in this mode, you earn coins which will unlock features in the shop (extra coins, shuffles, jokers) and stars which you can spend to incrementally grow a castle scene. The castle doesn’t do anything, but it’s enjoyable to have a rolling record of your wins.
The Solitaire levels are a mishmash of obstacles that Jewel Match Solitaire has used over the years. There are key cards that, when revealed, unlock padlocks. A sickle breaks open cards with ivy on them, while hammers break chains. They all, effectively, do the same thing: turning your focus to cards and piles that you might have left till last.
There are a few obstacles that we haven’t seen for a while in the franchise. Some cards go up or down in numerical value with each match. They are an absolute pain in the backside, as you can’t necessarily chase them down: they increase by 1 (or decrease by 1) as you do. They are perennially out of reach, and that can suck. But when they work in your favour, and you can wait to trigger them for maximum effect, your opinion will change.
I Compare You To A Kiss From A Rose On The Grey
Jewel Match Solitaire X also uses seals, which I can’t recall seeing before, but isn’t on Suricate Software’s list of ‘new stuff’. A card might have several of these seals on, and you need to play cards of a specific type – red/black or a certain suit – that lowers the number on the seal. Eventually they will become available for some matching. These cards are slightly more enjoyable to nibble away at than the up/down cards.
As you play these levels, you begin to unlock an absolute avalanche of other games. Bonus and Classic games become available, like Freecell and Klondike. There are Mahjong levels, which opt for the simple clear-the-table gameplay of matching tiles and trying to avoid unwanted piles. Match-2 levels are similar to Solitaire, but require you to match cards that are already in play, rather than drawn from a deck, while Supersize levels are exactly how they sound. They’re Solitaire games that pull from what must be four or five decks of cards.
We haven’t even mentioned our favourites, the Challenge levels. These apply criteria to a Solitaire game. You can’t just clear the board: you have to do it with a touch of finesse. You might have to incorporate an unbroken run of cards from Jack to Ace, for example. They’re the closest we got to a timesink that wasn’t the main campaign.
When Is Too Much Too Much?
I look at all this stuff and wonder what the average Jewel Match Solitaire fan does with it all. I will freely hold my hand up and admit that the Bonus/Classic games don’t do anything for me – I’d either play those games at home with a pack of cards, or find a game that’s better at dedicating itself to them. The Mahjong is similar: it’s fine and it functions, but it’s lacking in frills.
In the end, I kind of sieve Jewel Match Solitaire X for gold. I quickly get tired of stuff and chuck it away, leaving me with the main game campaign, which I am confident will take me a decade to finish, and the Challenge levels. For £5.79 I feel thoroughly served – there’s more than enough for the price. But I can’t help looking at the stuff I don’t care for, and feel guilty for being wasteful.
Jewel Match Solitaire X is unlikely to convert anyone to the cause. It’s not got a theme that tempts people in, nor does it remix the formula. Instead, it arrives holding more Solitaire puzzles than you could possibly complete in a month. Maybe that ‘X’ represents treasure on a map, as there’s chestloads here.
Important Links
Shuffle Up! Jewel Match Solitaire X Arrives On Xbox – https://www.thexboxhub.com/shuffle-up-jewel-match-solitaire-x-arrives-on-xbox/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/jewel-match-solitaire-x/9nrhbv1fbsm4
