Reviewed by Brandy Shaul
Bejeweled Blitz has made quite the name for itself on Facebook as a free-to-play experience, and then again in a paid iPhone version (bundled with Bejeweled 2) that connects to your Facebook account allowing you to enjoy the 60-second gameplay right in the palm of your hand. Now, Bejeweled Blitz has officially landed on home consoles via Bejeweled Blitz Live on the Xbox 360.
Along with its transition to consoles comes a change in controls, a new gameplay mode, and all new multiplayer features, each of which comes with their own pros and cons, but provide a worthwhile experience for those that just can’t get enough of the match-three gameplay the franchise made famous.
For those who haven’t played the other versions of Bejeweled Blitz, PopCap has taken the now-classic match three gameplay of the original Bejeweled and placed it in 60-second segments. In Live’s Classic mode, you’ll try to make as many matches of three or more like-colored gems as you can in 60 seconds. Unlike the game’s other iterations, there are no boosts to add more time to your game, so every second truly counts. If you make a match of four, five, or six like-colored gems, you’ll create special power-ups that destroy small sections of gems, gems across the entire board, and so on, while rewarding you with bonus points.
Creating chains and combos (that is, having matches “fall” into place after making a match yourself) will reward you with multiplier gems that, once destroyed, will forever multiply the amount of points you earn for the rest of that game, and any of these special gems that remain after the 60-seconds have elapsed will be destroyed in the “Last Hurrah”, which gives you one last chance at earning points.
That short recap aside, the game’s Classic mode has actually undergone a complete overhaul in terms of the controls. Now, instead of moving a cursor and swapping two gems by choosing one gem and then choosing the direction you’d like for it to move, you simply hover over the appropriate gem and press either X, Y, B, or A to send the gem in the appropriate direction (X being left, Y being up, etc.). This unfortunately presents a bit of a double-edged sword. For those that have little experience with the genre, this control layout is probably ideal, as it lowers the number of moves you’ll need to make with the analog stick to make a match. However, for someone like myself, who is used to the mouse and even former console controls in the franchise, this change comes with a huge acclimation period.
It’s incredibly easy to make incorrect moves until you’re used to the control layout, and as a result, it’s even harder to earn high scores. What’s more, the time it takes for “Blazing Speed” to activate (a bonus period reached when making matches quickly in succession) seems to have been increased. This version of the game seems to be much more about skill than casual gameplay, which is definitely something to keep in mind. How long will this acclimation period last? Of course it will vary depending on the player, but it took me a matter of around two hours before having that a-ha moment.
As for the game’s Twist mode, this is an entirely different game altogether, requiring you to rotate blocks of four gems either clockwise or counter-clockwise to make a match. If you can make matches one right after the other, without moving blocks of gems needlessly, you’ll earn bonus points for each subsequent match, but either way, you can expect your scores to be a third of that of the game’s Classic mode, until you’ve become accustomed to the change.
Scores ultimately play a large role in the game, not only in the single-player, as you’ll level up as you go along, with your score equating one-to-one to your experience point level. Your level seems to mainly be for bragging rights, along with the unlocking of a couple of achievements, but it does give you something to work towards nonetheless.
Taking the gameplay online, you can play in four different gameplay modes – two each for Twist and Classic. Both Twist and Classic offer Battle and Party modes (you can also battle locally), with Battle being a one-on-one match against another real-world player, while Party mode places you in an open room with multiple other players. You’re all playing your own games, but as you earn points, you do move up a general “leaderboard” of sorts, which rewards you bonus experience points for doing well or passing other players. It’s a very fluid experience, but with mics (where applicable) being completely open to conversation (hence the “Party” name), there is the risk for running into sore-sports or those with more questionable language.
All told, Bejeweled Blitz Live has an appeal for both hardcore fans of the 60-second gameplay and those that haven’t experienced it before, with the aforementioned “issues” probably only being truly noteworthy to those players such as myself, who are so dedicated to the franchise’s other forms. This is a tricky one to rate definitively, as you can technically play the game for free on Facebook, but if you’d love an HD, big-screen format that you can enjoy from the comfort of your couch, with true multiplayer features, be sure to pick this one up.