Solitaire Arena Puts a Bit of Social Twist to the Game

This is a great download! 

Remember playing Solitaire on your desktop at work using, for those who were Windows users….that is, if your company still kept it as part of their installs? That style of solitaire, Klondike, can now be found in Solitaire Arena, which puts a bit of a social twist to the game. Now, I know you are thinking that Solitaire is a solitary game – meaning it’s meant for one player. So, how do you play it against others? Well, you’re not technically playing a game against someone, but rather, you and another fellow Solitaire Arena fan are playing the same game simultaneously. The first one to complete the game successfully gets the most points. So, in a nutshell, you are playing against how fast or how well someone else plays exactly the same stack of cards.

When you first download the app, you get a nice, simple series of Help pages that describe the game, with simple steps on how to play Solitaire – for those new to the game. There is no registration required, so you’re not required to divulge much in terms of personal information – something I really liked. The games graphics are fairly good. I found the entire screen to be a bit busy, however. Once you play a few cards, by tapping on them, you see how the game functions, which is pretty easy.

When you start a game, a new deck gets shuffled for both you and your fellow player. The stacks are laid out as well as where the final four stacks will be. If a card is ready for the final four, it automatically migrates. I kind of disliked that. Those are part of the moves you normally would play if playing with a real deck of cards. There’s something satisfactory about making that move to the final destination; but, I digress. As you uncover and move cards from the playing stacks, and build your final stacks, you have some options to aid you. The first is the hint. There’s a small circle icon with a question mark in it. Press it and it will highlight some cards that are ready for play that you might have overlooked. The second option is to use magic. Yes, magic. Press on this, and a strategic card, like an Ace will emerge from the depths of your playing stacks, and place itself on the final four to get you closer to closure.

Fellow players…well, all I have to say is I wonder if they really are out there or if they are computer generated moves. I vote for the latter. Solitaire Arena makes you think you playing with people from all over the world, but I say, how can that be if you don’t even have to login to a profile or account to play the game. In the end, it really doesn’t matter, because I get to play a game I enjoy, for free.

The only downside I detected was the poor arrangement of items on the screen. It really is just too cluttered. In addition to this, you cannot play it in landscape mode, which may ease the disturbing organization. Maybe sometime in the future, an improvement will appear. All in all, if you love Solitaire, then this is a great download. Solitaire Arena sticks to the basics, there were no glitches and you don’t have to create any special accounts to play – all pluses in my book.