Recent reviews by Jxt09

Nice collection with some problems.

Sudoku - easy to play, no problems

Mahjong - either I missed some option or this game is werid. It cuts you off in the middle of play and gives you a score. It doesn't let you finish the board you started on. Frustrating

Pirate Solitaire - Weird suits (a 1 instead of an Ace, and the Letters for K,Q,J are different)

Bayou Words - Find as many words you can in a jumble a 6 letters. They show blanks indicating how many words are possible. However once the time runs down it cuts to a screen that shows your score. I doesn't even show the possible words you missed.

G-Tris aka Tetris - blah. As other reviewers have said, it's one of the worst Tetris clones ever made!

Music is nice and okay. Graphics are fine. Not much else to it. It's a tough decision to go + or - in this Steam review, I wish we have a numerical scale instead, but I'm gonna have to go with negative. This game seems to be made as quickly as possible just to make money. I don't sense any love of the Devs for the game they made. There's some little things they could have done to make it better but they didn't bother.

If are really want this game, wait for a realy good sale or try to find it in a bundle. Not worth full price.

A perfectly charming solitaire game.

11 hours to complete, easy achievements, a bit of story to hold the gameplay together, occasional hidden object scenes, occasional (and skipable unless you want all achievements) jigsaw puzzles, but mostly the usual "3 Towers" version of solitiare (Faerie Solitire, etc) where you match by going up or down from the card you drew. For instance, if you drew a 5, then you can click on either a 6 or a 4, then let's say you picked a 6, you can pick a 7 or go back down to another 5. Etc. There's tutorials for newbies.

There are the usual things to hamper your collecting of cards, such as needing sheers to cut through vines before some cards can become playable. Later on there is Ice on some cards that means you have to use that card twice. Each one fits the part of the map you are on: Forest, Ice, Lava, etc.

You get usable bonuses in the form of heroes that join you, one per area it seemed like. The first guy is a knight and once activated will give you a card that matches a random card in the playing area. The next is a wizard that flips over a few cards that are underneath others. You can increase their powers by buying rings or amulets in the shop. So that once you have bought the ring upgrade for the Knight he can do his thing twice. Once upgraded the Wizard will reveal more cards.

There are also Wild Cards and Jokers that rarely appear. And you can only store 4 of them at one time, so if you are playing and a new wild card appears you will have to use it or one in your stash.

Music is nice and fits the fairy tale theme. Sound effects are ok.

Graphics are rich in color and there are some scenes you can screneshot if you are quick, like after finishing a jigsaw puzzle it shows it for a few seconds before moving on.

Price seems to be in the normal range for this type of game. I think I bought it on sale, though I might have gotten it in a bundle, I can't remember for sure. Either way it was worth it. A charming addition to my solitaire collection.

It's a great "game" to use as white noise when I take naps. Also good background and visuals for when I'm knitting. Oh, and makes a great screensaver too. If you're looking to actually do something then look elsewhere because the only thing you control in this "game" is your view from your boat. Use the mouse to look around 360 degrees, up and down all around. But your boat never arrives anywhere. See some mountains in the distance and think you'll get there, sorry to tell you you'll never arrive! It's like this boat is stuck and the scenery is on a track that passes you by to make you think that you're moving. On the plus side there are different places your boat can be. And the trees and stuff are wildly colored, even the sky is strange. Sometimes you're floating towards a mountain with land on one side, then sometimes you're in the arctic floating through icebergs (hope you brought something warm to wear!), or you're surrounded by tall cattails and other water plants and they are very tall.

The music is, like. zen out man, Peaceful and soothing. And the game is free so why not try it out.

Do you love flowers, solitaire games, and the color pink? Then this is the game for you! Oh, I forgot: do you love easy achievements? Yes all this and more is in Jewel Match Solitaire L'Amour.

The game mechanics are the same as in the other Jewel Match games, the only difference being the graphics and music. For those who have never played a Jewel Match Solitaire game here is a quick primer. The top portion of the screen is full of cards covering each other in various fancy ways, later including frozen cards that have to be matched twice, vine-wrapped cards that need a scythe to clear the vines away, etc. The bottom shows your deck and the first card. You have to match cards by going up and down until you can't anymore, such as one, two, three, four, three, two, three, four, five, six. A run that long will give you bonus added to your calculator for money you get at the end of the level. Sometimes You can only match one or two cards. Sometmes you have to keep clicking through your deck until you find a card you can match. Eventually you earn enough money to buy helpful items such as one that clears a random face card, or one that adds more cards to your deck. Those can be bought from the Store any time. You choose what order you want to buy the upgrades. Levels can be replayed over and over again for those who want to get perfect scores. Once you have uncovered enough Jewels you use those to buy building pieces to complete your scene. In this game a lot of the building pieces are actually flower beds and arrangements rather than walls for a building.

Music is lovely. Sound effects are fine.

Graphics. Fine. Most players of this type of game are not expecting AAA game level graphics, they just want to play solitaire!

Achievements: Easy to 100%. You get all achievments before you even complete the game! Some are as easy as "Watch the game's credits".

Overall: a fun Solitaire game with lots of hearts and flowers.

A great solitaire game with winter scenes. With each level you gain gems if you can match away the cards on top of them, then use the gems to create palaces and castles one step at a time.

The gameplay is similar to Faerie Solitaire or Three Towers Solitiare. You match cards by clicking on another card that is numbered one higher or lower than the card in the draw pile. Aces match with Kings and Twos, so it's Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten, etc. If you match more than 5 cards in one turn then you get a combo bonus. That increases the money you get. Money is used to buy permanent upgrades such as "more cards in the deck", "eliminate one random card", and enable you to gain Jokers and face cards that you keep on the side for when you need them. If you don't get all the gems on a level or don't get 3 stars, you can replay it as many times as you like. Sometimes you just get a bad random draw.

Unlike the usual style of match solitaire this game does not have 10 games in one set like Faerie Solitiare does. Instead each level is by itself and you go to a map after completing the level. The map shows all the levels in a winding path to the end. I found that I missed the "Faerie Solitiare" way of playing with 10 games in a set, because it would light a fire in me to try to get the highest score (3 stars or whatever) on each level so I would have a perfect board. This game I can play a few levels and quit. There's no fiery draw to keep playing and playing like I have experienced in other match solitaire games I've played. However this is just a minor quibble and did not prevent me from playing and finishing the game. It probably took about 13 hours to finish and get all achievements (easy achievements). The rest of my hours, currently 50, has been playing the bonus games.

There are 12 bonus games that unlock as you play on the map. They are variations of solitaire. They are: Emperor, Blockade, SImple Simon, Carre Napoleon, Brigade, Yukon, Triple Line, Streets Redeal, Twin Queens, The Red and the Black, Q. C. Patience, and Algerian Patience. My favorite is Blockade. I play a few games of that every day. I think this game is a deal because you really get 13 games in one, if you like solitaire!

They give you four different card backs to choose from and two different card fronts to choose from. Once you have completed a castle scene you can look at it again in the gallery and even set it as your desktop background (that's one of the achievements actually).

Music is various holiday songs that play several times then switch to a different one. Be prepared to learn to hate Aud Lang Syne! I don't know why that one bothers me the most but after awhile it grates on my nerves. Perhaps because it is louder than the rest of the songs. THe other songs are softly in the background.

I can't think of anything else, please let me know if you have any questions.

Welcome to "Mountaintopia. Ancient mystical land famous for it's wide mountain tops, dangerous monsters, and unimaginable treasure!" You hear that quoted line every single time you start the game.

So what is Circle Empires? An RTS game focused on killing the enemy and defending your circles. You start with one circle. You get a generic "worker" who gathers whatever resource is on that circle: food from berry bushes, wood from trees, gold from gold clusters. Use the resources to recruit your army. Some recruits cost food, your basic "Guard", while others cost gold (archers, and the higher ones like healers, dragons, etc.) There is a sign on each circle that tells who they are (monsters, bandits) and a number which is their strength. Draw your mouse around your army (workers are automatically exempt) and look at the bottom of the screen where is displays your army strength. Then go forth and conquer those who have less strength than you. Then you get another circle and more resources. Each circle has only one type so it's very important to conquer circles that have gold.

There are 6 Difficulty settings: Easy, Normal, Hard, Extreme, Difficult, Impossible. So you can choose Easy if you just want an easy time or a harder one if you want a challenge. I usually play on Hard and it's not too hard actually. Warning to achievement hunters: there's one for beating a game on Impossible which is really difficult to do (according to what I've read in discussion board threads). And there's lots of wonky achievements like: Have 10 Healers in your army. Have 100 workers. Etc.

There are 3 game modes: Defeat a Boss Monster, Claim all circles, Defeat an AI Player.

They start you with only 3 Warlords (my name for them) to choose from but you unlock more as you play and meet certain requirements. Each Warlord has a different benefit, such as +500 gold to start with. This lends to a lot of replayability as you try out each one. Some let you recruit specific creatures that others can't have, like the frogmen and Giant Frog (my favorite, of course!).

At the end of each game your loot is dropped into your treasury. At first a tiny pile of gold, but the more you play the higher that horde grows!

Story: None, though some Warlords have a short description about their life. I wish there was a campaign but alas there is not.

Graphics: So cute! Cartoon looking monsters and army men battling it out. You can zoom way in to see the action or zoom out to check on all the circles you can see (there's a fog a war where you can't see all the circles on the board, only ones you have a circle adjacent to).

Sound: Music is actually kind of light-hearted and I mostly tune it out as I play since I"m concentrating. The sound effects are great in battles and other things.

tl;dr:

RTS game focused on battles, not building things
Monsters! Dragons! Vampires! Ghosts!
6 difficulty levels
Lots of characters to play as, each with their own bonus
3 play modes
No story, No campaign
Cute graphics
and Giant Frogs!!!

The voice acting is sooo bad. Thankfully there are not many scenes, just before and after each area is complete. The match 3 is just basic stuff. There are three helpful items you can use, such as a hatchet to break chains. You can only use them once their meter is full. And there's bosses! That was unexpected. Boss level at the end of each section. It was different and kind of cool, so I give them a plus for that. But overall it's just not worth it to me and I requested a refund. This game has no achievmenets. No trading cards. No incentive to keep playing. And the voice acting is worse than high school, it's that bad. Oh, and it has spiders, too.

16 hours to 100% achievements and completed game. (except for some mahjongg tile games I haven't played yet)

This is a great game. Family friendly with the spookiness, not horror level but more on the fun level. Though little children might be afraid of the skull faces in the Mahjongg Tile extra bonus game. I love the spooky background music, complete with occasional owl hooting. The castles are spooky. The cards are spooky (King, Queen, Jack look like vampires). I thoroughly enjoyed playing it.

Easy game for achievement hunters, you don't even have to complete the last castle to get all achievements!

Standard solitaire in the vein of "Faerie Solitaire" and the like. There's a tutorial that takes you through the basics. You earn coins which you use in the shop to buy upgrades such as more cards in the stack, see how many cards are left, remove one random card from play, get jokers, etc.

A+ in my book. Can't think of any cons other than I wish they had a few more achievements to make us keep playing longer!

Well I suppose after 1,000 hours I've played enough to write a review. ;-)

This is the Ultimate jigsaw puzzle game on Steam. For one thing, it's FREE! And not only the program is free but they also give you quite a few free puzzles so you can try it out and see if you like it. Then, if you do like the game, there are tons of DLC puzzle packs to buy, each with a theme like Halloween, Christmas, Trains, and for the dudes who think puzzle games are lame they have Pin-Up Girls (ooo-la-la!). You can pick which theme interests you and only buy those. Or be like me and just buy them all. Piece size ranges from 100 to 1,000, though most of the time they are in the 200-300 range with a couple bigger ones like 450, 640. And the pieces themselves have weird cut-out shapes on some of the puzzles. They are not always the traditional cut-out shape. That could be a pro or con depending on if you like variety or would rather just stick with the traditional style.

Features:

Play the way you want to play. There are settings for how fast the pieces float in the river, and if they rotate, and other things I've forgotten.
There are different backgrounds behind the puzzle that you can choose from, so you're not stuck with the koi pond.
Kiosk! You earn stars and gold which you can use to buy a variety of cursors, headers for the main page, and unique puzzles in shapes!, plus some extra puzzles.
Every month there is a Challenge Puzzle. And some of them have been quite the challenge. 640-1,000 piece range. I tend to use a lot of cheats.
Oh, I haven't mentioned the cheats before! There are 3 of them: Flash image of entire picture for a few seconds, Show the location of the piece you are holding, and...something I've forgotten. You use the blue stars for the cheats, and each has a different number of stars they cost.
Music tracks to choose from (I turn off the music because I listen to podcasts while I'm puzzling)
You can replay a puzzle that you have finished, like if a family member wants to do a puzzle you have done.

Achievement hunters, I got bad news for you. You'll probably never 100% this game. Because there are achievements for each puzzle in each pack, and they keep adding packs once in a while throughout the year. Unless you spend your entire day doing puzzles you'll never come close to 100%.

So tldr:
It's FREE with lots of FREE puzzles to do
DLC Puzzle Packs that have themes - buy the ones you like
Lots of customizable settings
There are a few puzzles with a FROG as the subject, so there you go that's all you need to insta-buy! P-)
Did I mention it's FREE? Just download it and try it out. You will become a pixel puzzle addict like me (I play every day. No joke. Every. Day!!!)

Well I've played over 50 hours of this game, I think it's past time for a review.

It's kind of match 3 with physics! You have to drop the (pearls, as they call them but you can call them balls or orbs, whatever) orbs and hope it hits two or more of the same color so they match and disappear. With the physics, though, the orbs move around and aiming can be tricky sometimes. There are still two levels I have not been able to get all 3 stars on, so what does that tell you! Some of those levels are devious! I think half of my playtime was getting all the 3 stars, along with some zen mode play (easy). Each level has 3 objects that you must achieve to get the stars. They change depending on the design of the level. Sometimes it's "finish within 3 minutes". Stuff like that.

The designs are ingeniously made to be difficult, which is a good thing for people like me who love a challenge like this. If you are an achievement hunter looking for an easy 100% then look elsewhere cuz this game has one achievement where you have to play zen mode 1,000 times! That will take awhile. I havn'et even hit the halfway mark, though I bet I'm close. If you could care less about achievement and want a brilliant puzzle game then look no further!

Story: Story? What story? Oh, yeah, something something about getting pearls to rebuild the bubble shield around Atlantis on the bottom of the sea. Something cracked the shield and water is getting inside, oh no! That's about it. Sorry for those of you who love a story along with the puzzle gaming. THis is about the barest story I've ever seen. There's more holes in this story than swiss cheese!

Bonuses: What would be a match 3 game without some form of bonus you unlock as you play?! In this game you rack up stars by finishing levels (1,2,or 3) based on difficulty, and once you get twenty you can unlock one of the bonuses. And they can be very helpful indeed. Once unlocked they randomly appear in certain levels and in the zen mode. So getting 3 stars on a certain level will be easy if you have the bomb bonus. The bonuses will appear inside an orb and when you match it then the it overrides the next color orb and instead puts the bonus (bomb, etc.) to drop.

Let me list the bonuses: The BOMB obviously blows up, but you have no control over when it blows. It will blow a second after hitting any orb. The LIGHTNING one is another of my favorites. Once dropped it will activate as soon as it hits another orb and send out lighting all over and any orb it touches will disapper. The RAINBOW orb will make all the orbs of one color disappear as soon as it touches one of that color. (I forget what they call this next one) The LINE orb will zap a horizontal line as soon as it touches any orb. Can be helpful if used strategically. The BOUNCY orb will bounce around and sometimes bounce out of the playfield and fall off into the black nothingness. So be careful when using the bouncy one! The SWITCH one I don't find helpful. When it hits an orb it will swap that orb with the bottommost orb. Gee so helpful, thanks. Another one I don't find all that helpful zaps a vertical line when it hits and orb. And the line it zaps is only one orb wide, so it doesn't really zap as many as it looks like from the graphical display.

Music: soothing, I still like it even after 50 hours of listening to it repeat. My mind gets focused on the puzzle and I tend to ignore music. I mean, it's not the greatest zen music of all time but it fits the game and is decent. Special effect sounds are also okay, not annoying.

One feature I found in this game that I have not found in some others is the ability to have more than one player's saved data. You can have up to five people who are playing the game, not all at once but have their data saved. When you first start it shows you five icons (fishy things) that represent the saved data files and asks you to choose which one you want.

What else? Post a comment if I missed something. Oh, and I bought this on Steam when it was on sale.