ocity

In a recent post, I mentioned that PopCap were going to release another version of Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook, and people who were fans would get a sneak peek.
I had been thinking it was not genuine. How wrong was I?

The new Blitz Beta has introduced Coins and Boosts.

Coins appear on yellow gems that drop at random (aka an as yet undetermined by me algorithm) intervals. Coins are also awarded for each score multiplier you collect.

Each coin is worth 100 credits, and for the beta, each Boost costs 3000 credits.

There are 5 Boosts you can use, with a maximum of 3 Boosts in use at any one time. The boosts are:

Mystery Gem – puts a random special gem on the board at the beginning of the game.

Detonate – detonates all special gems on the board. Usable once per game.
It replaces the gem at the bottom left of the game board with a detonator. It can be swapped, allowing you to still make matches with the gems around it, but is only activated when you click on it.

Scramble – scrambles all gems on the board. Usable twice per game.
Similar to the Detonate Boost, Scramble replaces the gem at the bottom right of the gameboard with a scrambler which can be swapped and only activated when clicked.

Plus 5 Seconds – adds 5 seconds to the end of the game.

Free Multiplier – puts a multiplier on the board at the start of the game.

My favourite single Boost to use is the multiplier. As long as I can activate it early enough in a game, it makes for getting a high score a lot easier. Of course, it doesn’t help much if you don’t activate it.

If I have enough credits, I will activate Mystery Gem, Plus 5 Seconds and Free Multiplier all at once.

It’s nice to be rewarded for playing the game so often with the Coins. I averaged 5 coins (500 credits) per game, with the most in one game being 1100 credits. The only thing I am not as keen on is that you do not have to actually collect them yourself to earn them. You can leave them for Last Hurrah to collect them for you.

The Boosts help to take a bit of the randomness out of the game, but you’re still subject to randomness and your own skills.

It would be nice to see more highscore medals though. The top medal is still only 250k. The Boosts enable players to get even higher scores than before but they’re not being recognised. The score statistics graph also tops out at 400k. While mousing over the data points will reveal the actual score, it’s a bit misleading since all scores of 400k and over are at the same height.

Overall, a nice addition. Keep up the good work PopCap, and keep playing Bejeweled Blitz everyone!