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pjsim2001 · 2 years

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Bejeweled Deluxe Review - The Birth of Match 3

Summary ★★★☆ Enjoyable

Bejeweled Deluxe is a legendary and well crafted game from back when puzzle games actually existed. Its simplicity and age could be a turn off for some, but others might find it refreshing and nostalgic. Either way, this is the game that started the match 3 genre, and it's an alright one to start with.

For more game reviews, check out https://pjsim2001.tumblr.com/reviews.

Background

For most of my life, I've played the same old games - platformers like Mario and Sonic, Wii stuff, and maybe a few FPS and miscellaneous party games. But recently I decided I wanted to branch out and try to add some new games to my repertoire, and maybe find something new to obsess over.

For some unexplained reason, Bejeweled popped up into my head. The game was something that I knew of... but had never played, or even really seen in action. It existed as a vague constant in the universe, but not one present in the gaming culture of today - I read an article somewhere calling Bejeweled "the Gone With the Wind of gaming", and I think that's an accurate description - TECHNICALLY massively popular and has iconic aspects, but not immediately memorable. Nowadays when people think of "match 3", they think of Candy Crush, the popularity of which and what it's done for the King company I can't even quantify.

Makes you wonder, whatever happened to PopCap, the company that made Bejeweled? They also made freaking PLANTS VS ZOMBIES (and Peggle as well, don't think I forgot about that) - you'd think that with a literal genre defining game like Bejeweled and one of the quintessential mobile games up there with Angry Birds like Plants vs Zombies, PopCap would be on par with King, having their games on the front page of the App Store... well, they got bought out by EA. Enough said.

So when looking for a Bejeweled game to play, I decided to skip anything modern and check out the past entries. I started with Bejeweled 2, and long story short, I'm now addicted to the entire series.

As of the writing of this review, I've played 1, 2, Twist, and 3, and I plan on making reviews for each one of them. Which is the best version? What does each version offer? Well, let's get started.

Graphics & Presentation

...OK, it's just the version I got, but the first thing I was jumpscared with when opening the game was this "Best Buy game center" window. I had no idea such a thing had ever existed. And look at that selection of ratchet ass flash games! Games like that are really nostalgic for a late 00s/early 10s Internet kid like me. But anyways, this popup is a bit annoying. The game is also installed in the start menu under "Best Buy Games" with a link to the website (which, by the way, now redirects to an Oakland Airport website?!?!?). If you're an epic hacker like me, you can get around the launcher by just changing the shortcut to open Bejeweled.exe instead of Launcher.hta, but yeah. At least the Best Buy ads haven't infiltrated the game, unlike back when Bejeweled was web only and was pimped out by Microsoft to advertisers.

That aside, here's the title screen of the actual game:

And what you see when you click there to play:

My friend described it best: "Cool Math Games?". You can definitely tell that this game originated as an online game, with the whole sidebar with small gameplay size, the onscreen logo, and the title screen with the "Click Here to Play!". Plus, when you get a high score, it'll tell you whether it was the best "for the day" which clears when you close the game (even if you come back the same day), which I bet is a holdover from online leaderboards. I also read that apparently the game didn't even HAVE a save feature until a later revision!

Needless to say, the game is dated, but in general, pretty nice. Unfortunately, the only resolution the game runs at is 640x480 - you can go fullscreen, but you can't stretch the window, which might be a visibility problem on high resolution displays. Good thing the gems are varied enough in shape and color to be distinguishable. There are also some charmingly classic effects, like rainbow text inbetween levels that warps and twists, as well as the gems swirling into the center of the screen when clearing a level or flying all over the place "exploding" when you lose. They also shimmer underneath your mouse cursor, and flip around in 3D when selected.

One weird quirk is that the high scores are hidden under the options menu. At first I couldn't find it, so I thought it meant that I'd have to complete a game every single time I wanted to see my scores! Also, the game shows the "swap these two gems!" tutorial every single time you open the program without a game in progress, which is a bit annoying, because you're forced to move that specific gem the game tells you to. Oh well.

Gameplay

Bejeweled introduced what's now referred to as match 3 gameplay - you start out with a board filled with gems, and you have to clear them by switching two adjacent gems to make rows or columns of 3 or more alike. If switching them won't cause a match, then the gems will return to their position and nothing will happen. But if you get a match, all the gems in the match will then disappear, causing the ones above them to fall down to fill the space, with more appearing from the top.

You'll get more points the longer your rows and columns are, or if switching two gems causes two different sets to be matched. The biggest way to earn points however is to "cascade", which is when making a match causes other gems to fall on top of each other to match and automatically clear themselves - the points will rack up the more cascades you make one after another.

The game has two modes: Normal and Time Trial.

Normal has you matching gems to reach a certain amount of points to clear the stage, represented by the bar at the bottom. There's no time limit, and the point requirement increases per level. What you'll need to be careful of though is running out of moves - you'll want to try and move the gems around in a way that'll maximize the amount of moves you can make, all the while trying to set up cascades and large matches. If you need help on finding a match to make, you can press the big bulbous purple button and it'll show you which gem to move, but at the cost of some points.

Time Trial uses the bottom bar as a timer instead. It starts out halfway full, then starts to tick down as time passes. You fill the timer by scoring points, so you'll need to make matches quickly and constantly to keep the bar from becoming empty. The bar moves faster and faster each level, so it'll reach a point where you'll need to make large matches and cascades to keep up. Luckily, you can't run out of moves in this mode - if you do, the gems will fall out and reshuffle themselves. You'll still want to try and be strategic with making moves though, since the less moves you have, the harder it'll be to find the next one, especially since you'll be rushing. Plus, the hint button basically becomes a suicide button past level 2, since it'll drop your timer.

You'll be surprised by how addicting Bejeweled is once you get to playing it. Just matching the gems is satisfying with the game's sound design, and getting cascades and watching as all the gems start falling and disappearing as the points rack up and the funny low resolution voice announcer dude congratulates you is one of the greatest feelings in gaming. People compare this game to Tetris, and I'd say it's a pretty good comparison - when things fit just right, it's a good feeling.

That does bring up the issue of randomness. As my pre-Bejeweled self expressed, it can seem like the game is basically just random in deciding whether or not it'll drop the right gems in when you need them. As post-Bejeweled me will confirm, lots of cascades will happen not because you planned them, but because the right gems generated from above at the right place (which is good and fun sometimes, but...). Sometimes it can be unfair to feel like you're making all the right and careful moves, only to get screwed over by bad gem generation, or even worse (and most INFURIATINGLY), the game will randomly decide to give you a cascade that ends up interrupting a move you're trying to make by shuffling the gems around and bricking a part of the board. Furthermore, while I can't confirm whether or not the gems that fall from the top are randomly generated or not, I felt that the later levels (in Normal mode) would give you less and less useful gems for the situation.

However, there's strategies you can employ to try and reduce the chances you'll get screwed over. Generally, you want to try and make matches near the top of the board at first, then make ones near the bottom when things start getting tricky in order to move gems around with gravity, or hopefully get some cascades to clear things out. I'd say it isn't any more random than getting screwed over by not getting a straight line piece in Tetris, and it isn't any less fair then the later Tetris levels where it gets so fast you can't move pieces to certain locations - and if you dared tell any pro Tetris player that the game is luck because the pieces you get are random, your ass is getting t-spinned out of the room. Bejeweled is the same way I think; there are pro moves you can make that aren't 1000% sure, but very good for your chances - I've been playing for a little while so I know this, but I still have much to learn (as you'll see when we get to Bejeweled 2, but that's a different story).

Music

youtube

Something notable about Bejeweled is it's YUMMY soundtrack. It's in the "tracker" format, so it's played live in-game with its own instruments, sort of like how a retro game console would do it, and it's better than generic Windows MIDI instruments.

The soundtrack was composed by electronic musician Peter Hajba (proving once again that Peters make the best stuff😎), also known as "Skaven", who's gonna be reappearing in the future for sure - and this is one heck of a start. The soundtrack is made up of three songs: "Autonomous" for the title screen, "Network" for normal mode, and "Data Jack" for time trial. All do an excellent job at creating a bright industrial electronic vibe that's catchy as all hell.

"Data Jack" in particular just blew my balls off the first time I heard it and the Sega Genesis-ass drums kicked in; it pumps you up and gets you scanning the board to find matches and watch the gems go flying. "Network" is also perfect, going much slower and more thoughtful, while also bringing straight heat with the way the music changes and evolves.

The only negative is that I think some people might find the whole bleep bloop retro style a bit annoying and grating. But me personally, I like electronic music and catchy stuff that has a little gritty character, so I love this soundtrack.

Verdict

Bejeweled, even here in its most basic form and after all these years, is still super addicting and fun to play. I love seeing how far I can get in both modes, whether I'm deep in thought and vibing with normal mode, or in the mood to kick some butt with my eyes darting across the screen in time trial.

Maybe not EVERYTHING about the game has aged super well, and there's plenty that later versions do much better than this entry, but the basics are all here and accounted for, and the presentation is still better and more professional than other shovelware, copycat match 3 games I've seen online before.

★★★☆ Enjoyable

Bejeweled 1-3 & Twist are relics of a time before puzzle games just became ways for mobile developers to mine ad revenue for revives, or pull some psychological tricks to extend game time by forcing you to wait for lives and stamina or whatever. Original Bejeweled is just like original Tetris, and I think it's worthy of being on the same level - it's a simple game you can pick up and enjoy, no BS.

I think even this first entry holds its own against current offerings, and even against its sequels to an extent. Later versions can get a little explosion-happy, which is great in its own way, but there's also something to be said about the rawness (& nostalgia factor) of this one.

I actually DO recommend checking out one of its sequels first (in fact, even something like Microsoft's replacement might actually be objectively better AND its online w/o download), but I can't give this game two stars man, it's just so damn good. Check it out if it looks appealing!

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thursdayglrl · 2 years

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NEW TUMBLR USERS: some bullet points on etiquette and how to use the site, wherein I will also try to explain some things and be slightly more nuanced, because subcommunities are not created equal

first thing, which is very important if you're a tiktok, youtube, or reddit expat: you follow PEOPLE here. now, a lot of people will curate their blogs to have only one theme, but that's not everyone. there basically no algorithm, most people turn off recommended posts, and the tags are pretty glitchy, so most people follow blogs, and not as much tags.

on the tag thing: when I refer to tags, I mean the little section of the post that's just tags at the bottom. anything you type in there immediately starts with a #. you can have spaces in them, but not quotations or commas (quotations bring the text in quotation marks into the front of the tags as it's own tag, and commas separate tags). you can use them to organize your reblogs, but most people use them to ramble or comment. if you click the notes of a post, you can see everyone's tags, and the OP of a post + whoever you reblogged it from can see whatever tags you add in their activity (notifications) page. if your tags are funny, they might get screenshotted and added to the post. adding things in the tags, in a lot of spaces, is viewed as more polite and less obnoxious than making actual additions, and having your tags added to a post is like someone saying "no, everyone deserves to see this".

also about tags: adding them in the post itself, like #this, does nothing. note it's not clickable. tags do help with outreach, though, but only with original posts. that is, if you make a post and add a fandom tag to it, other people browsing that tag or looking up that fandom might see it. if you reblog someone else's post and add a fandom tag to it, that's kind of just for you.

on additions (that aren't tags): an addition will stick to the post, ie. if you reblog something with a comment and someone reblogs it from you, unlike tags, that addition will also be shared. similar to stitching a titkok or quote-retweeting, except the ownership of the post (and the credit) don't change. unlike quote retweeting, it's bad form to reblog something to make fun of or disagree with OP, unless you're picking a fight. if you don't want drama, I've seen people just vague (subtweet? do we still use that?) other posts, or screenshot the offending post to comment on it. again, OP gets notified of every interaction. they can also see you disagree in the tags.

addition etiquette varies with context and your relationship to the OP. fandoms, especially smaller fandoms, don't mind additions as much and, depending on the post, discussion and expansion upon what's being said is appreciated. if you're mutuals with someone, reblogging with a comment (depending on the post and the person, obviously) might be seen as friendly. on social justice and activism centered spaces, additions are not always welcome and might be seen as disrespectful or derailing. if the post has a lot of notes, OP probably doesn't care anymore, but don't expect a response. too many inane additions is also seen as annoying, so sometimes people will go back and reblog a version of the post without them.

reblog etiquette also varies. for artists, usually reblogs are appreciated, since it's the only way they get exposure, and spam reblogging from an artist will probably be taken as a compliment (though they might be embarrassed if you reblog old art). do not reblog personal posts/vent posts. if it's something super sensitive and personal, it'll probably be seen as an invasion and offensive. if you reblog someone talking about their day with no apparent reason, it's just kind of weird. some people like spam reblogs, some people will block you for them, sometimes it's just weird. especially if you don't follow them or you're not mutuals.

you might see that gimmick blogs are a thing here, or very specific blogs. unlike other social media, you don't have to make a whole separate account to have two accounts, you can have sideblogs. sideblogs can also be shared between multiple users without the need to share passwords. you can't send asks or reply to a post with a sideblog, though, nor can you like a post or follow someone through your sideblog. that'll still be through your main. sideblogs are often used for organizational purposes, eg. having a blog for each fandom or niche, or having a personal blog and an art sideblog. some people will have a blank main and only use sideblogs, but usually that'll be somewhere in the description or pinned post.

on bios/descriptions and pinned posts: in regards to how much info you put on there, YMMV. depends on which "corner" of tumblr you're in. the links in my bio are a relic from when all the cool kinnies had an edgy lyric and a link in their description, leading to an "about" page (page on their actual tumblr, better seen on desktop) similar to a carrd. most people now just have basics in their description, or something funny in their description and a pinned post with things like pronouns, name, and sometimes a DNI. some people will put nothing in their description and not share any personal information, some people will list fandoms. carrds are not as popular, since you can write however much you want. some people have traded the link int he description to links on their pinned post (eg, link to an about post, a link to their selfie tag, a link to their art)

try to learn the language. so to speak. "moot", "oomf" (and variations), "bestie" are some, off the top of my head, that are not used nearly as much and will get you clocked and sometimes made fun of (even if not directly). also, you don't need to censor swear words. there's no algorithm and tumblr doesn't care if you're a pottymouth, so saying things like a$$ or d1e makes you look silly. on the other hand, there IS a ban on porn, so tags and words that are deemed nsfw are impossible to search (will return a blank page) and posts that are explicit might get flagged and hidden. there's still plenty of porn around, but people have to find workarounds (and your blog might also get taken down if it's a porn blog). also, generally the sentiment here is not very favorable towards being sexual toward strangers (eg, mommy? sorry jokes) or being rude to strangers (eg, calling someone an insult or a slur jokingly). but, again, YMMV.

this is getting way too long, so, ironically: long posts are annoying. if a reblog chain gets too long, maybe take it to DMs. some posts are long on purpose, to jokingly annoy your followers (eg. the famed "do you like the color of the sky" post). some people find it funny, some people find it obnoxious. a lot of people tag long posts with #long post, so their followers can block that tag and not see the post (there is a feature to block tags and words in your settings).

remember that tumblr is not a monolith: best way to learn is participate and observe!

#txt #elliott talks #long post #tumblr etiquette

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