Popcap’s latest, Bejeweled Twist, has now launched. And there’s a demo version too. It was, according to the game’s press release, unleashed on an unsuspecting world. World? Is that true?
Bejeweled is Popcap’s triumphant match-3 game that has sold in numbers that sound like I’m exaggerating them for comic effect. Of the original, 93 billion copies have been bought. Oh, I’m such a wag. It’s actually (and genuinely) 25 million copies bought, and frankly frightening 350 million downloads. That’s the population of America. Or one really weird guy 350 million times.
The titular twist in the third version of the game, should you be wondering, is the new way the tile matching puzzle is performed. Rather than swapping adjacent jewels, you now rotate squares of four clockwise. There’s also a pile of new gem types, specials, and so on. It is of course still a match-3 game, so you know, perspective. But Popcap seem to know what they’re doing with it. 350 million people can be wrong, clearly. But they probably aren’t about Bejeweled.
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Titular twist, eh? Sounds like something you get in a high-school locker room.
Puzzle Quest is much better …
Well, I sure wasn’t suspecting it. Do I count as part of the world?
I dunno if I’ll buy this but the demo was fun, I like the new mechanic and the strategies it brings.
nabeel
Where do they get their ideas from? That’s a decidedly unique game mechanic and not at all like Hexic!
(and yes, I realise that Peggle is just Pachinko with knobs on and that Bejeweled is basically turn-based Columns anyway, but at least they were created from the ground up; bolting part of another game onto your exisiting title seems a tad lazy)
incase you were wondering
25,000,000 * whatever it cost = a lot of money
Yeah, but I bet it cost millions to make, so I’m glad they made a return on their investments.
Zuma is better.
Actually, no it isn’t.
Surely the point of “indie” games like this is that they don’t cost millions to make…
…using indie in the most loose sense here.
Actually, http://www.casualgaming.biz/news/27441/PopCaps-next-game-boasts-1m-budget
Excellent, I’m gonna wait and get it with my Big Fish Games Jumbo Subscription Credit, I love getting casual games for 8 dollars ^^ Just the waiting is killing me, tho…but I waited for Peggle Nights that way, too.
It’s like they had a meeting…
suit 1 : “We need to make some more money off bored housewives, and quick”
suit 2 : “What was our most popular game?”
Beancounter : “Well Bejewled was”
suit 2 : “Well, we need to make something just like it but with a bit of a twist, that will sell millions!”
suit 1 : “I have a cunning plan, lets redo the game but instead of sliding the blocks … lets twist them!, Bejewled with a twist … it’s brilliant.”
Millions incoming …
Popcap with a $1M title? That must be high wages they pay their coders :P
As long as I can play it while flying from Booty Bay to Silvermoon I don’t care!!
Finally widescreen support!
;)