Playing all that Bejeweled Pays Off

JorgeDeLaCancha writes "The US Skill Games Championship, heading by SkillJam, will be featuring two PopCap games, Bejeweled 2 and Zuma . Paul Jensen, President of SkillJam, claims that both these games while simple in their concept offer a more challenging level of play to the expert gamers. The grand prize in this championship is one million dollars. Will we soon be seeing more similar tournaments with large prizes based on simple puzzle games?"

Comments

How about Tetris Attack?

[TheGuano]

I've never really liked Bejeweled. It always seemed like a simplistic and limited (luck-dependent) copy of Tetris Attack, which IMO is one of the best and deepest puzzle games out there. Can anyone who's spent a lot of time with Bejeweled give us a quick summary of what the elements of depth are when you're at a more expert level?

Re:How about Tetris Attack?

[improbablecause]

I don't even consider many of the "puzzle" games out there to be puzzles. I always thought puzzles required creative thought or, at the very least, thought in general to solve. I mean, just look up the word puzzle in the dictionary... "puzzle" games do not even fit the definition. All these "puzzle" games out on consoles and PCs use a minimal amount of thinking and rely far too much on twitch reflexes. Where's the problem solving? Where's the deep thought? Where are the unique solutions? The Incredible Machine deserves to be called a puzzle game more than any of these recent shams.

Re:How about Tetris Attack?

[TheGuano]

TA does reward twich reflexes like no other puzzle game, but before you can even get to that point, you have to spend weeks or months REWIRING YOUR BRAIN to see the patterns and setups needed. That's pretty cerebral, imo. Also, a classic like Tetris unquestionably requires some major twitch reflexes, and I wouldn't hesitate to call it a puzzle game.

Tetris Attack

[QEDog]

Have you ever played Tetris Attack? I still play this 1996 (I love my SNES) jewel that most people haven't ever heard off. The game is incredibly addictive, in particular against a human opponent. It has a lot of depth; solid, real depth without random stuff to keep it interesting. In fact, I feel it is better than Tetris is some ways, as it is very challenging, with a faster pace and less frustrating (you can't just make a horrible mistake that ruins everything). Seriously, check it out. Nintendo should rerelease this game for the new consoles, or for DS (no Pokemon Puzzle Crap, just Tetris Attack please).