Why am I writing about Bejeweled and Bejeweled 2 from Astraware, two games that are not only similar in name but also have been around for a couple of years? Doesn’t everyone already know about these games?

Talking with a new Treo user at work recently, I realized that there are many new Treo owners who have never seen or played these great games. I decided to share my thoughts on two of my favorite games, and to try and answer the question for everyone, “Should I buy Bejeweled or Bejeweled 2?”

Bejeweled – The Original and Still a Classic

Bejeweled first came out over 5 years ago, but its age doesn’t show because it has been updated several times since then to take advantage of the improved graphic and sound capabilities of newer PalmOS devices.

The game consists of a screen full of different kinds of gems, and the goal is to line up 3 or more gems in a vertical or horizontal row by swapping any two adjacent gems, as shown to the right.

When you have 3 gems lined up in a row, they will disappear with a chiming sound and the gems above them will drop down to fill in the empty space. New gems then drop into the open spaces at the top. The cool thing is that when these gems drop down, some of them may line up with 3 of the same kind in a row, causing a “chain reaction”. The more gems that you get rid of, the higher your score. You also get more points for lining up 4 or 5 gems in a row and getting longer chain reactions.

There are also two playing modes that determine when and how the game ends. In Easy mode, there is no time limit so you can take your time trying to find gems to swap that will create a row of 3 or more. However, the game will end when there are no more available moves, so you need to develop a strategy that will maximize your odds of having at least one possible move at all times. Still, there is a certain amount of luck involved, so you will always be challenged to beat your current highest score.

As you score more points, the “bonus meter” at the bottom of the screen gets higher, and when it reaches the right end you get a bonus to your score as well as having a bunch of gems vanish from the screen which can cause another nice cascade.

In Timed mode, you are still trying to line up 3 or more gems, but you are now working against the clock. Instead of a bonus meter at the bottom of the screen, you now have a timer. The timer decreases as you look for gems to swap and the game ends when it reaches zero. When you line up 3 or more gems and score points, the timer increases. If you can score a lot of points quickly enough, you can get the timer to reach the far left and get a bonus (similar to the bonus in Easy mode). This also increases your score multiplier, and the more times you get a bonus, the higher your score multiplier and the higher your overall score will be.

Extras

Bejeweled has a fast-paced soundtrack that really gets your heart pumping, especially in Timed mode where you are racing against the clock. But if you get tired of it (and you probably will if you play long enough) you can turn off just the soundtrack, the sound effects, or both.

You an also adjust other games settings such as the speed that the gems drop and a few other things that improve the visual quality on faster machines or improve performance on slower machines.

Another cool feature is that the same registration code you get for Bejeweled will work with the special Bejeweled Valentine’s Edition (VE) of the game…if you can find it that is. This special version of Bejeweled has only appeared for download on Astraware’s web site for a limited time during the month of February, and only during the last two years. Will it be available in 2007? I don’t know, but if you are lucky enough to get it you will find that your red gems have been replaced by red hearts. You can also set a special customizable valentine’s message that will appear during the game if you want to surprise that special Bejeweled addict in your life.

Summary of Bejeweled

Bejeweled is a great game that is easy to learn, hard to master and incredibly addictive. Just when you think you’ve got an unbeatable score, you may find that everything goes your way and you get an even higher score. Of, if you’re like me, your wife (or significant other) beats your score and you spend countless hours trying to knock their name off the top spot of your high score list. And if you get a really high score, you can also upload your score to Astraware’s web site and get some real bragging rights.

Bejeweled 2 – An Impressive Sequel

Bejeweled 2 is good example of taking a great game and making it better without losing the best features of the original. It is also a great example of how to design a game sequel that doesn’t completely cannibalize the sales of the original game.

Bejeweled 2 takes the two modes of game play in Bejeweled, Easy and Timed, and morphs them into two new modes called Classic and Action. Classic mode in Bejeweled 2 is similar to Easy mode in Bejeweled, but it adds some more features such as Power Gems and Hyper Cubes. Power Gems are formed when you line up 4 gems in a row and look like normal gems with an extra twinkle to them. If you line up 3 gems and one of them is a Power Gem, it will explode and remove all gems next to it.

Another difference is that instead of getting a bonus when the bottom bar reaches the far right, you move to the next level. This is a nice change because it gives you another way to measure your progress in the game in addition to your score.

Hyper Cubes are formed when you line up 5 gems in a row and look like a glowing white ball (as seen in the picture below, fourth gem from the left on the bottom row). If you swap a Hyper Cube with another gem, lightning bolts shoot out and destroy all gems of that type that are on the screen, scoring you lots of points and creating some pretty impressive cascades.

Bejeweled 2’s Action Mode is similar to Bejeweled’s Timed Mode with the addition of the new features described above. The bar at the bottom gets shorter and the game is over when you run out of time. And if you get enough points to get the bar all the way to the right, you move to the next level.

In addition to these differences, Bejeweled 2 also has two new modes: Endless Mode and Puzzle Mode.

Endless Mode is exactly what it sounds like…you can play forever without running out of time or moves. Your score will just keep increasing and increasing, but with each new level you get to, it takes more points to get to the next level. So where it might only take you a couple of minutes to go from level 1 to level 2, it may take you over 30 minutes to get from level 20 to level 21.

Puzzle Mode is probably Bejeweled 2’s biggest departure from Bejeweled because instead of trying to repeatedly line up 3 or more gems in a row, you are trying to solve a series of increasingly challenging puzzles. These puzzles consist of levels with a partially filled screen of gems that can only be cleared by moving the right gems in the right order. Once the entire screen is cleared, you move on to the next puzzle. The puzzles are grouped into sets of 5, each group forming a different “solar system”. You can’t go to the next solar system of puzzles until you solve at least 4 of the 5 puzzles in the current solar system. But once you get to a new solar system you can solve the puzzles (planets) in any order you want. The puzzles introduce several new objects such as Time Bombs (which blow up after a certain number of moves) and rocks (which cannot be moved but can be blown up with Time Bombs, Power Gems or Hyper Cubes).

Extras

Bejeweled 2 also adds many enhancements to the game, including:

1) New Power Gems, Hyper Cubes, and Time Bombs for increased variety and more advanced strategies

2) Five secret game modes that can be unlocked.

a. Original – Same as original Bejeweled game (not sure if it is Easy or Timed mode or both).
b. Hyper – Same as Action mode but incredibly fast.
c. Cognito – Only available after you solve all of the puzzles in Puzzle mode
d. Finity – Similar to Action mode with the addition that Power Gems, Rocks and Time Bombs can also drop from the top to replace gems. Also, only chain reactions score points.
e. Twilight – Similar to Classic mode, but new gems drop in from both the top and the bottom

3) Being able to switch game modes and then resume where you left off

4) An entirely new soundtrack that is more much more dynamic, ranging form calm and relaxing to faster paced tempos

5) Gems are more animated

6) Screensaver mode with clock and date display

7) Improved hint feature

8) Interactive tutorial

9) Variable planetary background graphics

10) All kinds of tracking of game play statistics for each player such as total score, time played, puzzles solved (from Puzzle Mode), gems cleared, biggest cascade, biggest combo, power gems and hyper cubes created.

Summary of Bejeweled 2

Bejeweled 2 has much more depth and variety than Bejeweled, and when I learned about the 5 hidden game modes, I realized that Astraware really pulled out all the stops when creating Bejeweled 2. It a game that you could play for a very, VERY long time and still be encountering few features and new challenges.

Conclusion

So, should you buy Bejeweled or Bejeweled 2? While some might think that the obvious answer is that you should buy Bejeweled 2 since it has pretty much everything from Bejeweled and a whole lot more, I think the question deserves a closer look.

Bejeweled is elegant in its simplicity, and for all of the reasons it has been a top seller since it first came out it is still a great game and is ideal for a new Treo user that is also new to playing games on their Trēo.

Bejeweled 2 is an awesome sequel that is much richer in features and offers a much greater variety of challenges. This really is the intergalactic, super-duper, whiz-bang version of Bejeweled with everything you can think of thrown in. But all of that power and functionality might be more than some people want, reminding me of the old saying “All I wanted was a V8″.

If I could only have one game on my Treo, it would be Bejeweled 2. But if I was to recommend a game for a new Treo user that’s never had a PalmOS device, I might point them towards the original version of Bejeweled because I’m sure that they would enjoy it. And if you happen to have an older Treo 600, your only option is to get Bejeweled because the Troe 600’s lower-resolution screen can’t run Bejeweled 2. Well, I guess another option would be to upgrade to a newer Treo. You wouldn’t be the first person to justify upgrading their phone so they can play the newest games 

Bejeweled Pros

• A great game that’s easy to learn and fun to play

• For most people, a single game doesn’t take too long to play (but it is hard to play just one game)
• Compatible with the Treo 600’s lower resolution screen which is incapable of running Bejeweled 2.

Bejeweled Cons

• Seems a bit overpriced compared to what you get in Bejeweled 2

Bejeweled 2 Pros

• Great extension of original Bejeweled game concept

• Many different game modes offer endless hours of game play
• Puzzle mode is challenging and a great variation on the Bejeweled theme

Bejeweled 2 Cons

• Takes up more memory than Bejeweled. Not a problem for a Treo 700p, but can be a challenge to run on a Treo 650 if you don’t have enough free internal memory

• Only runs on devices with a 320×320 or larger screen, so it won’t run on the Treo 600 (which has a 160×160 screen) but will run on the Treo 650 and 700p

Tested using a Treo 650 and Treo 700p

Related Links

Buy Bejeweled for PalmOS

Buy Bejeweled 2 for PalmOS

Buy Bejeweled for Windows Mobile 5

Buy Bejeweled 2 for Windows Mobile 5

All games from Astraware

Discuss Games in the Treo Discussion Forum

Filed under: Software reviews