PSN Review – Bejeweled 2
Is the port-over excellent?
Developer Pop Cap released Bejeweled 2 upon the PSN, with the promise of even more of their casual games to come. It’s tagged at $9.99. So, what do you get with your slightly-less-than-a-movie-ticket cash? Read on to find out!
Looks good on a large TV!
For the few who may not know, Bejeweled’s basic concept is a match-three game – you are given a grid of shapes, or in this case gems, and you swap two at a time to form lines of three or more identical types to take them out of the field. It’s a tried and true formula, and Bejeweled 2 has sold more than 20 million copies across basically every platform available today. Heck, I even have it on my Pocket PC.
The Good
It’s Bejeweled 2 as you know it. It’s a very faithful port, and in glorious hi-def this time. As you move the cursor around, nice effects cover the jewels. The audio is definitely very crisp, and it sounds just fine in 5.1 surround sound. You do in fact get quite a lot of bang for your buck. You get four basic modes, three of which are variants of the classic. Action mode has a timer, and Endless mode lets you play for eternity if you so choose. The fourth main mode, Puzzle Mode, is turn-based and has many different obstacles on your path to clear a grid. It’s my favorite mode by far and I know I’m going to go at it until I finish it. On top of that are four hidden modes that you can only unlock by playing each of the main modes and doing quite well in them. They are faster-paced and generally more exciting than their normal counterparts, well worth the time it takes to unlock them. As well as supporting Remote Play on your PSP, this title features trophies & online leaderboards.
Puzzle Mode - One of the best modes of the bunch.
The Bad
Mostly that it’s a year-old game, ported to the PS3.
The Ugly
No multiplayer support, no custom music, no SIXAXIS motion controls, or rumble.
The Conclusion
Bejeweled 2 has earned a 3 out of 5 rating. There’s an amusing game at its core, but Bejeweled 2 is single-player and simply a port to the PS3. You really cannot go wrong picking this up, but at the same time it lacks some features that would warrant a higher score. There is plenty of game here, however, so you will get plenty of entertainment bang for your 10 bucks. A demo is currently available at the PS Store right now, so why not give it a shot?
PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Score
Trophies and online leaderboards help add to replayability. No custom music support, a rather bland port over to the PlayStation 3. |  |
12 Responses to “PSN Review – Bejeweled 2”
I do have to say, I love this game. But, I’m a little let down at the lack of custom music tracks… where’s the long term re-playability without a good custom soundtrack?
That and the sixaxis will be a lot slower than a mouse :S
Alex
I agree – this would be like porting solitaire to the PS3. You want to give it a good score, because the fundamental game is enjoyable and time-tested. But as for the PS3 version, I felt like they could have done a little more with it.
And therein lies the problem with numerical review scoring.
@Dana,
You will be pleasantly surprised with some of the plans we have to change things around here at PlayStation LifeStyle. More to come!
Well there’s nothing wrong with a 3/5. That means it’s a fine game that fans will enjoy, just nothing really particularly innovative about it.
@Dana
Yeah I feel the 1 out of 10 system has to go Way too much Bias present in those figures. As for the 1 out of 5, to me it really draws at the core of how you should rate a game…
1 – No good Stay Away.
2 – Rental at best, Genre or IP lovers may be the only ones happy.
3 – Good game, not spectacular, just short of being great.
4 – Great game, nearly a must have.
5 – Excellent game, and a must have.
No decimals places, all whole integers.
Has anyone tried out how well it plays via remote play
I’m going to have to slightly disagree with the rating. The fact that you can play using remote play should have bumped it up a little to a 4 or 4.5. As StalkingSilence knows all too well, we don’t get much remote play love, but this game delivers it great. My wife actually likes my PSP now and wants to make sure we take it with us when going to BMX Nationals so she can play at the hotle (or anywhere they have wifi, and yes, she makes me check now). She earned all but 1 trophy out of the 12, and that was because she hated the puzzle mode. I enjoyed it and wasted a couple hours playing through it completely.
Also, did you know there is a secret mode?
http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=ps3dlgames&message.id=134592#M134592
There is remote play , Sold.
As soon as i get a new PSP
its funner on my Iphone
@R2D2
? lol
[...] Luckily that’s just what we like around here, and yet another of these is on the way.Bejeweled 2 is already on the PlayStation Network, so it would only make sense to follow up with Bejeweled 3, [...]