Mobile Game Review of "Super Jewel Quest"

Image via WikipediaBejeweled, the classic "match 3 by shifting a gem" game, with the addition of a backstory about playing these gem games in Africa, becomes an adventure game that's advanced through puzzles. As the progress is linear, if you lose, just restart that specific stage, and you get another chance. The end result is slightly better than the plain version, but not that much better.

You are this adventurer who's been summoned to the tribe... the tribal leader's son was kidnapped by another tribe! You will have to play games with a variety of enemies and opponents to reach your goal: return safely with the leader's son. And you'll play a LOT of games on the board. To aid you, you will learn how to use the "magic hammer". When powered with coins (you can earn those during regular play) you can smash one or more tiles, and thus perhaps break an impossible situation, turn the tide, or beat the clock.

There are basically three variations to the game... the "solo" game, where you need to beat the clock (but there's usually plenty of time) as you complete the triples and quads and quints, and basically turn ALL the playing tiles into "gold" color by completing a combo over them. There is the "versus / accumulate" game, where you are playing against someone else, and first to accumulate X number of Y gems wins (example, get 30 purple gems). No other color counts, alternate turns until one has achieved objective. Finally, the third variant is the "versus 70% control". Similar to the solo game, you complete combos to turn the board to your color. However, your opponent can do the same, and a tile can change color many times. First to reach 70% is the winner, and that means you have to make cascading combos.

The story is stretched in a few places, and the ending has you playing an opponent that is almost impossible to beat. Save your coins for those special moments when you need them most.

All in all, with almost no innovation and a story that barely works, Super Jewel Quest is better, but not much better than original Bejeweled, and that's not much.

Overall rating: 6 out of 10
Pros: It's still Bejeweled gameplay, easy to pick up
Cons: Not enough variations, plot has too many matches squeezed in