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| Astraware Solitaire by Astraware |
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Aside from the occasional game of traditional solitaire when I've had nothing else to do, there's never really been a desire inside of me to play card games on any of my electronic devices. Consequently, I was a bit disappointed when Astraware's latest offering ended up being a collection of different solitaire games. To me Astraware has been synonymous with the great PDA puzzle game, so I wasn't sure what to expect from Astraware Solitaire. I'm happy to say that the application is filled to the brim with the quality and professionalism that we've come to expect from Astraware. I'm still not entirely hooked on the electronic cards genre, but this was definitely a pleasant first exposure.
Most times I start out talking about the gameplay, but for Astraware Solitaire I want to mention the graphics right away. After all, that is the first thing you see when you start up the game, isn't it? I was quite impressed with the overall look of this game. The initial interface has a "dial" containing a circle with an image representing each of the available games. You can use the D-Pad or the on-screen arrows to move the dial, and as each circle is selected you are presented with a small image of what the layout for that particular card game looks like. The in-game interface isn't 100% intuitive, but once you get used to it it's easy to remember, and it's primarily out of the way so you can have the maximum space available for playing. When you start playing you have a couple of choices for things like card front and back design and color scheme, but as you win games you unlock more and more choices to customize the look for whatever best suits you. For the most part everything is easy to discern, though depending on the denomination it can be hard to tell spades from clubs, at least on a QVGA screen. The dialog interfaces are also sharp looking, and are actually graphical interfaces instead of dropping back to the standard PocketPC windows. The presentation for this product is quite polished.
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Now we'll discuss the gameplay. This is a collection of solitaire games, so if you're interest has already been piqued you're probably familiar with one or more varieties of this single player card game. The variations included in Astraware Solitaire are Klondike, Frecell, Spider, Calculation, Golf, Idiot's Delight, Canfield, Clock, Four Seasons, Yukon, Sultan's Harem and Pyramid. I won't go into the details of how to play each of these games, as that could take several pages on its own. What does bear mentioning, however, are the options. There are some global settings you can alter to make the overall experience suit your needs. If you want the cards to be animated while moving, select that option. Should you decide that it might be nice to highlight useful moves, or if you would just like any available move to be shown to you, just tell the game that you wish to do so. There are several other general options as well.
More to my liking is the fact that each individual game has its own customization screen. In Pyramid, you can alter the number of allowed redeals, among other options. While playing Canfield you can decide how many cards you would like dealt at a time. Spider allows you to choose how many suits you'd like to play with. Many of the games have an "easy" mode you can select. Every game has at least one or two options you can vary, while some have five or six. This level of customization allows for a significant amount of replayability.
As mentioned before, there are visual elements to the game that can be unlocked by winning certain numbers of games. In addition, you win "trophy" cards for certain accomplishments. For instance, there is a card to be won for the first time you win each particular game. I also won a card for winning a game without using undos, and even a card for losing a game! Once you've won all 52 cards in the trophy deck, you can actually use that deck to play with in the various games. You can click on each of the cards to find out what the qualifications for winning that card are, just in case you're looking for something particular to shoot for while playing. There are also nice little touches like being able to save the current state of each card game independently (which happens when you leave in the middle of a game), and being able to create multiple user profiles.
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At the beginning of this review I raved about the visuals, so how does the audio portion of the game hold up? Not quite as well, I'm afraid. The sound effects are sparse but practical, consisting of noises when a card is selected or turned over, cheering when you win, and "awwww-ing" when you loose. Unfortunately there is no music to listen to while you are playing. It's always nice to have something to listen to, and it doesn't seem like it would have been that hard to add 2 or 3 selections of background music to choose from.
Astraware Solitaire has not converted me into a solitaire freak by any means. However, it is a very well put together game that offers a nice variety of solitaire games that are fun to play. The look and feel of the game is top notch, and the multitude of customization options will ensure that you don't run out "new" games to play for quite some time. If you are really into electronic card games or wish to add a new casual PDA game to your collection, I would definitely recommend dealing Astrware Solitaire into the mix.
Overall Score: 7/10
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