Bejeweled ClassicI can’t say I went into playing Bejeweled thinking I was going to find a good game in this licensed product.

I was wrong.

The board game does an good job of capturing the feel of PopCap’s popular video game, but adds in some interesting mechanics to make it work in board form with multiple players. The goal in Bejeweled is to collected 3 coins each of 3 different colors. You do this by matching gems on the board. 3 gems gets you 1 coin, 4 gets you 2, and 5 gets you 3. After you take your turn, you slide all the gems that can be slid away from you towards the other side of the board. Sometimes this causes chain reactions, and you keep sliding. Once that’s done, you fill in the board with random gems, resolve any new matches, and play continues.

It’s the gem sliding mechanic that makes the game so interesting. In a normal game of Bejeweled, you always know new gems will fall from the top of the screen. Not only are you sliding gems away from your side of the board in this game, but other players are also. That means that every turn gems slide in a different direction, constantly shifting the layout of the board.

There’s a bit of strategy here, mixed with a good amount of luck-of-the-draw with new gems.

Overall, Hasbro put a pretty good game out there to market. One that my family really enjoys, and has already seen a lot of play in our house.

Bejeweled was provided free for review by Hasbro.