Jewel Quest Solitaire Trio (Nintendo DS) Review

Jewel Quest Solitaire Trio takes players on a journey through the South American jungle and African deserts, with the aim of matching cards, swapping jewels and unearthing hidden secrets being the order of the day. The problem with Jewel Quest Solitaire Trio, though, is that it takes two solid concepts, mixes them together, and somehow comes out with a highly watered-down end product. There may well be the inclusion of ”unique tri-peaks solitaire gameplay”, but the whole package lacks enough sparkle compared to other products on the market for DS and, subsequently, leaves players growing weary after only a short time.

The main purpose is to clear away the cards spread before you, each of which is not only emblazoned with the usual number/suit set-up of a standard deck, but also different jewels that get added to your collection every time something is removed from the main playing area. Once the solitaire section is done with, the game moves onto a Match-3 mode.

There is rather odd feature found during the Match-3 puzzle element, though, where the jewels collected must be cleared in groups of three or more of the same colour, as per the standard rules of such games. However, the strange element is how when a set of jewels are matched and removed, if another match is automatically made as a result of new jewels falling onto the screen from above the resultant group is not cleared. Instead the player is more often than not faced with a situation where there are three, four or even five jewels of the same colour sat there horizontally or vertically doing nothing. Therefore, players must actually choose two of the same colour and simply switch them around before the game registers an actual similarly-shaded batch! Given how advanced Match-3 games have become over the years, this approach is extremely antiquated and very awkward on the whole, which sums up the entire Jewel Quest Solitaire Trio package, unfortunately.

Whilst there is plenty of content packed into this trio of games, ultimately it comes down to the fact that there is not really any drive to keep on trucking through stage after stage of the same run-of-the-mill gameplay. A better option would be downloading one of the solitaire games on DSiWare, such as Nintendo’s own 2-in-1 Solitaire, or picking up brilliant Match-3 efforts like Jewels of the Ages from City Interactive on DS. Each game may get progressively better, with varied content being poured in to alleviate the monotony, but sadly even special cards and tri-peak solitaire layouts do not manage to keep your attention for too long.