Solitaire Blitz (PopCap) — Universal

[Happy W]

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First time starting one of these threads, so if I'm doing it wrong, shout.

[Happy W]

Some first impressions: Solitaire Blitz features the high productions values you expect from PopCap, which feels a little odd for a solitaire game. Gorgeous sound, cute animation. Plays really well. However, it's filled with the kind of freemium guff that you might also be expecting. In fact, the freemium aspect seems to have been kicked up a notch this time: you could have played Bejeweled Blitz till the cows come home, as far as I remember, whereas in Solitaire Blitz each play consumes a bottle of energy, so that eventually you have to fork out cash money for a bunch of those bottles if you fancy continuing. (The energy bottles do replenish automatically over time, of course.)

The campaign mode that appears in Facebook's Flash version of the game doesn't seem to be present here. I thought that maybe logging into my Facebook account in the iOS game would open up that mode, but no.

It's kind of a fun game, but I find the disposable IAP stuff bewildering. Am I playing the game as it was intended to be played? Or should I be using a bunch of those boosts? I spent a couple of dollars on silver, and the silver can be used to buy boosts, but only from a limited selection; it turns out that other, different, boosts must be bought with real money, as a separate purchase. Those energy bottles are a separate purchase too. This game makes me feel like the stereotypical old person staring in angry bafflement at some new gizmo that's all the rage.

The fact that PopCap is grimly striding down Freemium Street, smartly dressed in its new EA uniform, disappoints me in a way that the whole "Real Racing 3" business never did

48 hours later: Golly, this is a fun game. Once I'd realised that it's quite possible to clear a hand without using any boosts, most of my IAP concerns disappeared. There's two games going on in Solitaire Blitz, I think: in Game 1, your aim is just to clear all the cards. Without any boosts, that's tricky but do-able, and a lot of manic, panicky fun. Game 2, your aim is to get a high score. Boosts are essential for this one—without boosts you haven't the slightest hope of competing against others' scores. Just to be perfectly clear: "Game 1" and "Game 2" don't actually exist beyond the confines of my own head; they're just my way of coming to terms with the way Solitaire Blitz is structured, and overcoming my confusion and anxiety about whether all those IAP boosts are cheats or necessities or what the hell are they anyway etc.

I said above that *most* of my concerns have disappeared; the one thing that I still find mind-boggling is the whole business of needing "bottles of energy" to play a round. Once you've used up any free bottles the game gave you, it takes ten minutes for one bottle to re-fill with energy. If you want to continue playing, it'll cost you $3.99 for ten bottles. Read that again. It costs four dollars for ten bottles, i.e. ten rounds of Solitaire Blitz, i.e. precisely ten minutes of playtime.

I guess I'm running the risk of getting called "entitled" here, so let me just say that of course PopCap have the right to charge whatever they bloody well please for their game.

Wish it was something I could afford, though.

[TheClaff]

Based on Facebook link they posted it should be in US store tomorrow. Lame that after all this time it doesn't have the quest game mode from FB.

[Happy W]

Originally Posted by TheClaff

Based on Facebook link they posted it should be in US store tomorrow. Lame that after all this time it doesn't have the quest game mode from FB.

That doesn't bother me so much, somehow. PopCap have always taken things fairly slowly when introducing their games to iOS—for example, look at how they handled bringing the extra modes of Plants Vs Zombies to the two iOS ports.

When this kind of stuff *does* finally come in an update, it tends to be solid and polished and impeccably playable, so I'm pretty OK with them taking their time.

[caltab]

I love this game, but it doesn't seem to be out yet in US.

[Happy W]

Now seems to have been rolled out to App Stores beyond Canada.

I'm still jumping into the app once or twice a day. If you don't mind your game-playing being limited to occasional snacks of six minutes, I recommend giving Solitaire Blitz a shot.

There's a very similar game on the App Store made by Big Fish: Fairway Fever. Don't know which title came first, so I'm not going to start throwing the word "clone" around. Fairway Fever, unlike Solitaire Blitz, allows you to play as many hands as you like for free. I think it's fun, but I don't like it as much as Solitaire Blitz. The production values don't quite hit the standard set by Solitaire Blitz, and there's a bunch of little differences in gameplay that you may or may not prefer to Solitaire Blitz's way of doing things. I must admit it's possible that my liking S.B. more than F.F. might ultimately be down to nothing more than the maritime theme in S.B. :P

Anyway, Fairway Fever is certainly worth also trying out: https://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/fairway-fever-by-big-fish/id518801654?mt=8

[Gabrien]

"Solitaire with Friends?" Isn't that a... *sigh* Never mind.

[Capricornman]

Oxymoron

[caltab]

Originally Posted by Happy W

Now seems to have been rolled out to App Stores beyond Canada.

I'm still jumping into the app once or twice a day. If you don't mind your game-playing being limited to occasional snacks of six minutes, I recommend giving Solitaire Blitz a shot.

There's a very similar game on the App Store made by Big Fish: Fairway Fever. Don't know which title came first, so I'm not going to start throwing the word "clone" around. Fairway Fever, unlike Solitaire Blitz, allows you to play as many hands as you like for free. I think it's fun, but I don't like it as much as Solitaire Blitz. The production values don't quite hit the standard set by Solitaire Blitz, and there's a bunch of little differences in gameplay that you may or may not prefer to Solitaire Blitz's way of doing things. I must admit it's possible that my liking S.B. more than F.F. might ultimately be down to nothing more than the maritime theme in S.B. :P

Anyway, Fairway Fever is certainly worth also trying out: https://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/fairway-fever-by-big-fish/id518801654?mt=8

Fairway fever isnt out on the US app store as far as I now. The game you linked is fairway solitaire. Fairway fever is actually a different version of that series which sadly is not part of the ipad version. Fairway fever is only in Canada I think.

[Sanuku]

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