Brought to us by PopCap Games, it is pretty mind-blowing to me that as I write this Bejeweled 3 is actually over 10 years old! This game was and is pretty much available on everything you could imagine and it is a match-three puzzle style of game that I feel pretty much anyone can enjoy.
How to Download Bejeweled 3
You can download the game from Steam. If you like the style of PopCap Games, check out also our reviews of Plants vs. Zombies, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, Zuma Deluxe, and Zuma’s Revenge!
The Game Review
The core of the gameplay is that you have these various colored gems. The idea is that you match three of these gems and they will disappear, scoring you points and then being replaced by more gems on the gameboard. When gems disappear, it causes the other gems on the board to move. If they fall and land in another match-three situation, they will also be removed, which can lead to some big combos.
This gameplay is spread across an impressive eight different game modes in Bejeweled 3, some of which were brand-new to the series. The most basic game mode is classic where you just keep playing, trying to get rid of gems and get a high score with the number of moves you have.
Zen mode is quite interesting and one of the new game modes. In Zen mode, you do the same thing, but it is designed to be more relaxing with more chilled-out music and tips for breathing. There is a time trial style of mode called, Lightning mode and here you need to try and score as many points as you can in a minute. This to me is the most addicting of all the game modes.
Quest Mode is kind of weird in that as well as doing your standard Bejeweled 3 stuff, you also have various puzzles and mini-games to take part in. These can range from saving butterflies to making your way through a mine. It mainly uses variations of the other game modes, but I like how there is a clear sense of progression in this mode.
Bejeweled 3 also has some other game modes too. Butterflies, Diamond Mine and Ice Storm are all modes where the gameplay is made more complex by adding in another objective/puzzle. In Butterflies, you can collect butterflies, Diamond Mine has you needing to find various treasures and Ice Storm has ice rising from the bottom that you need to stop before it causes a game over.
There is also a strange variation to the game of Poker which I have, to be honest, and say that I did not get at all. It always seemed kind of random the cards I would earn in the poker mode so that was easily my least favorite of the eight. I think that the eight game modes are all different enough from each other to make them worth playing.
It is very easy to see why this series was (and still is) so popular. There are a million match-three games out there, but Bejeweled 3 is one that is a lot of fun and stands out. I think the core gameplay is easy to get into, but hard to master with its combo system. Plus, I think it is pretty awesome the way there are eight different game modes to mess around with.
