Bejeweled Blitz
| Bejeweled Blitz | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | PopCap Games |
| Publisher(s) | PopCap Games |
| Designer(s) | Jason Kapalka, Jon David, Andy Piro [1] |
| Series | Bejeweled |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, Facebook Connect, Xbox Live Arcade, Android |
| Release date(s) | April 5, 2010 |
| Genre(s) | Puzzle |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Bejeweled Blitz is a puzzle video game, originally a Facebook application which is developed and published by PopCap Games. It developed into a downloadable game, based on the then-in-development Bejeweled 3 engine, due to popularity of the differences from Bejeweled 2 and its new graphics. As with the Bejeweled series, Bejeweled Blitz is based on the Shariki game mechanic. It is the fourth game of the Bejeweled franchise and initially was available on iOS as part of the Bejeweled 2 iOS application, later on with the standalone iOS application.
Gameplay
The goal of Bejeweled Blitz is to match gems and Multipliers in order to get the highest score possible in one minute. By connecting with Facebook, players can compete with others for a high score on leaderboards.
The main game screen is an 8 x 8 grid of gems. Players make lines of three by swapping gems with adjacent gems. When a match is made, the matched gems disappear and more gems fall into the board from above. Special gems can be created by making matches of four or more. Players will earn a base value of 250 points for each match and if players matched the gems quickly enough three times, they'll earn a Speed Bonus, which adds the bonus to the base starting with 200, and continuing on until 1,000 for nine speed matches, which unlocks the Ignition Meter. If they are fast enough and when the meter is full, then a special ability will occur known as Blazing Speed. During Blazing Speed, the playing field will burn and every match made will explode and destroy surrounding gems(similar to a flame gem). If a Multiplier is matched with two other gems, then the point value will increase as the game progresses, starting from 2x an continuing on until 8x. After one minute (1:05 if Extra Time is played, 1:45 if combined with Tic-Toc and Extra Time, or 2:25 if combined with Chronostone and Extra Time), players will receive an end-of-game bonus known as the Last Hurrah. When that happens, any Special gems and Multipliers will be removed from the board. The Last Hurrah bonus will then be added to the player's subtotal, which gives them the grand total for the game. Depending on the player's progress, they'll receive a Star Medal and there are fifteen in all. They will receive 25,000 points for the first, 50,000 for the second, and so on until 500,000 or more. There are also Coin Gems. Each time a coin gem is matched, 100 coins will be added to the player's bank. Also, the player will receive five times its base value.
Unlike the previous games in the series, Bejeweled Blitz allows the player to swap gems while gems from previous matches are still falling.