Bejeweled 3

Year: 2010
Genre: Puzzle
Website: http://www.popcap.com/bejeweled-3

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Shane:

• Platform: PC
• Hours logged: 8.0
• Playthroughs: 1
• Rating: 5/10

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Notes and Discussions:

• Shane (7/24/2014):  It is Bejeweled.
  
  Yep.
  
  That is actually most of why I wanted to review this title.  Sure, it isn't Pong, but for my generation this is probably the most influential casual game in existence.  Think of the hours (Possibly DAYS) spent matching those endless falling jewels (or bubbles, or balloons, or letters or other goofy whatnot from whatever version not built by PopCap games.)  Think of waiting at the airport.  Sitting in your hotel room for 30 minutes before your dinner reservation.  Shoot, the waiting rooms at doctors' offices should, by now, have been renamed "Dens of Bejeweled playing" for all of the people that pass the time doing just this.
  
  People start their kids into gaming with this game.  People start their PARENTS into gaming with this game.  (I was going to say grandparents but in my world that would be freecell and sudoku.)  What more can a person say about it?
  
  And now I will say something more about it.  There are a few new game modes here.  Lighting we have seen before and classic is obviously the old style.  The Poker variant was new to me, as were some of the quest mini-games.  I wasn't particularly enthralled by the ice climbing mode (where you race the climbing columns of water, then ice, before you lose) but I played a decent amount of mining (blowing up blocks near the dirt to remove it and reveal treasure.)  The graphics were given a boost in this version, which was... neat I guess.  I don't remember ever playing a match 3 style game and thinking "this game would be so much better with some better rounding on those edges" but that could just have been me.
  
  All told, it is Bejeweled.  I gave it a 5 after calling a completion of Quest mode one playthrough.  Keep in mind, my rating of 5 isn't a slam.  It is recognition that this is a reference game.  A game with which to compare all other games.  Not sorry I spent the time while doing other things.  In the end though, I uninstalled it.  I have had enough icon matching for the time being.