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Puzzle Games (Games) The Almighty Buck

Playing all that Bejeweled Pays Off 39

Posted by Zonk from the jewels-can-be-exchanged-for-money dept.
JorgeDeLaCancha writes "The US Skill Games Championship, heading by SkillJam, will be featuring two PopCap games, Bejeweled 2 and Zuma . Paul Jensen, President of SkillJam, claims that both these games while simple in their concept offer a more challenging level of play to the expert gamers. The grand prize in this championship is one million dollars. Will we soon be seeing more similar tournaments with large prizes based on simple puzzle games?"
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Playing all that Bejeweled Pays Off More

Playing all that Bejeweled Pays Off

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  • How about Tetris Attack? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by TheGuano ( 851573 ) on Saturday September 10, 2005 @06:52PM (#13528668)
    I've never really liked Bejeweled. It always seemed like a simplistic and limited (luck-dependent) copy of Tetris Attack, which IMO is one of the best and deepest puzzle games out there. Can anyone who's spent a lot of time with Bejeweled give us a quick summary of what the elements of depth are when you're at a more expert level?
    • Well, there's the um...well, you know, and the...thing.

      Go RTFA, you bum. Just because you're too dumb to see the obvious doesn't make it my problem! Any bozo can see that Bejeweled requires more skill than any other game on the market!

    • I don't even consider many of the "puzzle" games out there to be puzzles. I always thought puzzles required creative thought or, at the very least, thought in general to solve. I mean, just look up the word puzzle in the dictionary... "puzzle" games do not even fit the definition. All these "puzzle" games out on consoles and PCs use a minimal amount of thinking and rely far too much on twitch reflexes. Where's the problem solving? Where's the deep thought? Where are the unique solutions? The Incredib

      • Re:How about Tetris Attack? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by TheGuano ( 851573 ) on Saturday September 10, 2005 @08:19PM (#13529039)
        TA does reward twich reflexes like no other puzzle game, but before you can even get to that point, you have to spend weeks or months REWIRING YOUR BRAIN to see the patterns and setups needed. That's pretty cerebral, imo. Also, a classic like Tetris unquestionably requires some major twitch reflexes, and I wouldn't hesitate to call it a puzzle game.
    • At early levels, Bejeweled is fairly easy. You will generally get the pieces you need, and you won't knock yourself out too easily.

      At the higher end of the difficulty spectrum, the game really attains a rubik's cube aspect to it which is quite interesting, although too challenging for me. You can't simply destroy jewels, you have to constantly be aware of what pieces you're moving down, and whether they're the kind you need or not. So an early game of Bejeweled would be like a chess game between amateurs

  • They need to make a Meteos competition. It truly is the only puzzle game that your can go head to head with someone else in, and feel like you actually deserved to win. Most puzzle games have way too much 'luck' involved (I'm looking at you Bejewelled), which I think generally removes them from the realm of competition games.

    • Tetris Attack (Score:3, Insightful)

      by QEDog ( 610238 )
      Have you ever played Tetris Attack? I still play this 1996 (I love my SNES) jewel that most people haven't ever heard off. The game is incredibly addictive, in particular against a human opponent. It has a lot of depth; solid, real depth without random stuff to keep it interesting. In fact, I feel it is better than Tetris is some ways, as it is very challenging, with a faster pace and less frustrating (you can't just make a horrible mistake that ruins everything). Seriously, check it out. Nintendo should re
      • Tetris attack is one of the greatest puzzle games of all time, in fact Meteos draws a lot of inspiration from it. I don't believe it has the "cult" status that you think it does though, anyone worth their salt in the puzzle genre has heard of it.
        • Interesting that you quote cult even thought the GP didn't use the word.

          Anyway, I would think the segment of puzzle gamers "worth there salt" is certainly smal enough to call it a cult, expecially since it is a SNES game.
      • I and a friend played a fair amount of Tetris Attack, though you should know its original name, in Japan, was Panel De Pon. Before Nintendo could release the game under that name now, they'd probably have to clear it with the Tetris company (which I don't think is their exact name, but is close to it). There's been a GC game called Nintendo Puzzle Collection, that's been out in Japan for a while but has yet to make it over here, that contains that game and two others. That's probably our best chance for
        • Forget the stop counter. Tetris Attack isn't good because of its single player mode. It's ALL about the multiplayer (human or CPU opponent). This game puts so much more stress on you to find your way out of a rock and a hard place pretty much constantly after 3 mins it becomes a very intense experience. It's still the most excited I get while playing a game competitively.

          Meteos does a pretty decent job of recreating that feeling, but not quite. There's no real point to making combos in Meteos (combos e
          • Meteos does feel a little more gimmicky with the block-launching play, but it's also more different because of it.

            Tetris Attack has versions for GB (so you say, I'm not familiar with that version), SNES and (as Pokemon Puzzle League) N64. Plus, in Japan the SNES game (under the name Panel De Pon and with cutsy fairy graphics) was released as part of Nintendo Puzzle Collection for Gamecube.
            • I wouldn't say the block launching in Meteos is gimmicky. It's interesting, and changes how you play. But the game still doesn't quite recreate the intensity of Tetris Attack.

              I'm aware of the other releases. I'm still mad Nintendo Puzzle Collection is not going to be released in the US. But none of those are portable.

              I can play the SNES version on an emulator for my NGage, but it's kinda slow, doesn't have the music, and it doesn't support a 2nd controller so I can't set up a 2P VS against the CPU at it
    • Well Meteos is great, but there are other puzzle games with that attribute.

      My favorite (god I'm going to mention it again, aren't I) is Rampart, which has a random element but one that can be planned for, and must be for skilled play. It's also very different in execution from traditional puzzlers, which generally means that people who have practiced up on tradiional falling-block and matching-color puzzle games won't have their typical advantages.
    • No kidding! Meteos is freaking awesome, and there is a lot more skill involved than most puzzle games. There's some luck too, but not nearly as much. It's freaking addictive too. I wish I could enter my girlfriend in a Meteos competition, she'd probably win. She managed to pwn me in 7 out of 8 games, when I had been playing it for 2 days and she had never seen it until she started playing.

  • Good for passing the time (Score:5, Interesting)

    by airjrdn ( 681898 ) on Saturday September 10, 2005 @08:26PM (#13529060) Homepage
    When my father became terminally ill, I finally talked my Mother into letting me give her a computer. Instead of Solitare, I used Bejeweled and a couple of other games to teach her mouse movement, clicking, etc.

    It's been a few years now, and she still plays Bejeweled every single night. Heck, maybe she should enter.

    For those in a similar situation, check out Kyodai Mahjongg http://www.kyodai.com/ [kyodai.com]

    Before you dismiss it based on the name, please do yourself a favor and check it out. It's not just Mahjongg. It's about 6 different games all rolled into one 2D/3D app and is very nice with tons of tweaking options, tiles, nice music, etc. My wife and I actually used to have little competitions playing Rivers (part of Kyodai Mahjongg). There's even a two player mode if you're interested.
    • It's not just Mahjongg.

      I think that should read; "It's not Mah Jong at all". Although these solitaire tile matching games can be great fun, they aren't really Mah Jong games. Real Mah Jong is a wonderful game. Try it out, you'll surely love it.

    • My dad's wife plays these kinds of games hours every night. It's like she's in a trance. And my mom's husband plays solitaire every day before going to work. I don't understand what makes them play these games over and over.
      • I don't either. But, I don't understand what makes my 2 and 3 year olds want to watch the same shows over and over either. Crazy isn't it?

        Unfortunately, it's the games I got her started on that keep her locked into using Windows. It's not that I necessarily think Linux is better, but at least right now it's hard to argue that it's not safer from viruses and such. Since her only uses for the PC are the web, email, and these games, if there were equivalent versions of these games for Linux I could swit
        • Well, I've heard of "Jools" and "Gweled" for Linux. They look the same but I can't say if the game-play is the same or not. Try a quick search for "bejeweled for linux" on google.

  • Zuma is a great cellphone game. (Score:3, Informative)

    by 88NoSoup4U88 ( 721233 ) on Saturday September 10, 2005 @08:46PM (#13529127)
    I just bought the cellphone version of Zuma after a friend recommended it : It's a great game, and can best be described as some Bust-A-Move [webmagic.com] spin-off ; Allthough that wouldn't give to much credit to how it really plays.

    Just as Bejeweled, it's a great game if you have a few spare minutes left.

  • I find bejeweled to be a little on the mindless side of the gaming spectrum. It's kind of like playing yahtzee with yourself, really. I think zuma is a little better, but it's just about fast reflexes and my laptop trackpad isn't too great for that game.

    Does anyone know of any great games that involve a little more thinking and a little less twitching? An online version of dr. mario would be pretty cool. Word games like bespelled are nice too.
    • There are lots of multiplayer online tetris games, Tetrinet is one example. As for word games, there are lots of those as well. PopCap has Bookworm, which is great fun, and very much non-twitching.
    • I second the vote for Dr. Mario. I've been seriously addicted to that game (Gameboy version) for years. It's downside is that it has a big twitch and luck factor at level 20+ at hi speed, though.

    • I find bejeweled to be a little on the mindless side of the gaming spectrum.

      Staying within the Bejeweled genre, you could try Big Kahuna Reef. While it is still considered "mindless", the fact that you need to break each box adds an element of strategy. (Of course, I did see Jewel Quest first, but that's slightly more primitive.)

      There's still fast action needed if you want to unlock the bonus pack, which generally needs to make 31 breaks (with none of them more than 6 seconds apart.) Not too much of a

    • Weboggle: weboggle.shackworks.com. Essentially, it's a browser-based version of Boggle. You find words in a grid and type them in. No blocks disappear or anything. You find as many words as you can in three minutes, and then you're told how you scored compared to everyone else who's playing at that moment. Then you do it again. And again, until you get sick of it and close the window.

      There's no cost, it's ad free, and it has none of that lame, glitzy, console-wanna-be chintz. It's just a solid, pure
  • If you get the whistle, it opens the warp!
  • Bejeweled 1 (never played 2) always seemed more about luck-of-the-draw than raw skill. It wasn't large enough to really plan out any big moves.

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