
They may not be as exciting as the rest, but they are a welcome sight nonetheless. There is also an assortment of score multiplier gems that give you more points when they are destroyed. Finally, there's the Star Gem, which is a tad tricky to form, but has the awesome ability to wipe out both an entire row and column in one go. Putting five gems together will make a Hyper Cube, which can then be swapped with any gem on the board to zap out all gems of that type at once. Putting four matching jewels together will create a Flame Gem, which explodes when it gets grouped up and takes out many surrounding stones in the process. There are several kinds of special gems that all have spectacular effects. The big way to pull that off is to form special gems. Despite that, it's not a mindless game you still need to make strategic matches if you want to attain a score worth anything. The clock puts you under a lot of pressure and forces you to really use your spatial awareness to find those matches when you can. However, Blitz differentiates itself from the pack by imposing a strict 60-second time limit on you. You swap gems around on the screen, group them into rows and columns of at least three, and watch them turn to dust before your eyes. Combined with some really good presentation that makes things feel even more frantic, and you have an incredibly fun game that feels surprisingly fresh.īejeweled Blitz is a Bejeweled game through and through. However, that's selling it awfully short, for it shows remarkable change where it counts and revamps the formula into a far more fast-paced experience.

It still boasts the same basic gameplay for better or worse after all, and it won't be changing anyone's mind about match-three mechanics anytime soon. In some ways, Bejeweled Blitz is guilty of that.

Forget most everything you know about classic Bejeweled gameplay.
