Android Game Of The Week – Jewels

Jewels
Developed By MHGames
Free
Version: 1.09
Size: 784KB

The Good
Graphics
Price

The Average
Music
Controls

The Bad
Game Modes

Jewels, like Bonsai Blast, is another game that has been on the Android Market for a while now. The game is very similar to PopCap's Bejeweled. Jewels has a fairly small file size, just 784KB, but still has high quality background artwork and jewels. The game loads fast straight to the high scores, but does require you to go to menu and pick a new game that way. Hitting new game reveals the games only 2 modes, Normal and timed.

Normal is much like Bejelewd, you play until there are no more moves available. There are no special powerups in the game, you simply touch the jewel you want to move and move it in the direction to get 3 or more of a kind. When you fill a bar at the bottom, you move to the next level and the bonus increases. The more levels you complete, the more bonus you get but it also means more jewels need to matched. Unfortunately, not long after level 3 I get the feeling that the amount of jewels needed to get to the next level increases too quickly and slows the games pace. What doesn't help the speed the jewels move after you tell them to, or the speed jewels drop from the top. It feels just a tad too slow and becomes more noticeable when you start progressing in Normal Mode and Timed Mode.

Timed mode is again like Bejeweled's Timed Mode. The bar at the bottom is continuously decreasing and you need to get rid of jewels faster to get to the next level where the bar decreases faster. This mode works fine for for the first 5 or 6 levels, but after that I find the speed of the jewels moving, deleting, and coming down from the top, start to become a hindrance.

Despite those issues, the game still plays very well. I haven't had any issues with the touch controls and find it very accurate. It knows which jewel you have pressed and which direction you want it to move. The two modes in the game do feel light as its possible to play through a game of each Normal and Timed very quickly. But as a pick up and play game, the two modes are over quickly enough to fill a short gaming burst.

This is a good Mobile version of a Bejeweled type game. The modes may be lacking, but Normal and Timed do provide good gameplay for short gaming bursts. I'd recommend this to all Android owners as it is very accessible, has a small file size, and works very well.