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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?"
When my father became terminally ill, I finally talked my Mother into letting me give her a computer. Instead of Solitare, I used Bejeweled and a couple of other games to teach her mouse movement, clicking, etc.
It's been a few years now, and she still plays Bejeweled every single night. Heck, maybe she should enter.
For those in a similar situation, check out Kyodai Mahjongg http://www.kyodai.com/
Before you dismiss it based on the name, please do yourself a favor and check it out. It's not just Mahjongg. It's about 6 different games all rolled into one 2D/3D app and is very nice with tons of tweaking options, tiles, nice music, etc. My wife and I actually used to have little competitions playing Rivers (part of Kyodai Mahjongg). There's even a two player mode if you're interested.
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Staying within the Bejeweled genre, you could try Big Kahuna Reef. While it is still considered "mindless", the fact that you need to break each box adds an element of strategy. (Of course, I did see Jewel Quest first, but that's slightly more primitive.)
There's still fast action needed if you want to unlock the bonus pack, which generally needs to make 31 breaks (with none of them more than 6 seconds apart.) Not too much of a problem, since you don't have to wait until the pieces fall before you can make your next move.
The Reflexive Arcade demo lasts 60 minutes, not including time spent on the menu or screen saver. You might also find other games you find interesting as well, but most of the action puzzles may have a focus on speed.