3D Solitaire
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3DS
| 3D Solitaire

Solitaire is a great card game, and the best version is probably the most played: Klondike. Included with all Windows PCs since the early '90s, it's an effortless way to pass an hour, requiring just enough concentration to be engrossing but enough to be taxing.

Zen Studios's latest release for the 3DS doesn't offer a great deal of content and isn't innovative in the slightest. However, it's a decent game of both Klondike 1 and Klondike 3 rule variants, and with its solid controls it's a worthwhile purchase if you're after a time-waster to sit on your 3DS's memory card.

Patience is the key

It pays to go back to basics from time to time, but if you're at all familiar with the rules of Klondike then you should skip the next few paragraphs and rejoin us at the conclusion.

The aim of Klondike is to organise a shuffled deck of cards by separating them into suits and collecting them in ascending order.

28 cards are initially arranged into seven piles of ascending length, from one to seven. The top card from each pile is face-up, and you have to place another on top of it that's one less in value - i.e. King, Queen, Jack, Ten, Nine.

Though the card you place on top of any other need not be of the same suit, it cannot be the same colour. You also have access to the rest of the deck, set in a pile from which you draw one or three cards at a time, depending on the rules you're playing.

If you draw three at a time, you can only choose the top card to play, making the game more difficult by limiting access to potentially vital options from the pack.

Once you have an Ace available to you, you begin building each suit back up until there are no more cards on the table, at which point the game is over.

A Waste

In 3D Solitaire you're also scored for your actions and given bonus points for specific achievements, such as turning over two face-down cards from the seven piles in quick succession.

High scores are rewarded with more backgrounds, though there are just three preset ones available and the option to use any image from your 3DS's photo library. None of them is particularly impressive, and though they feature animated characters and their own musical themes they're wholly underdeveloped. The soundtrack is particularly awful - you'll reach for the volume controls almost immediately.

But your interactions with the game are handled well. You can use a stylus to flick cards about, or traditional button controls. Both take a few moments to get used to, but once you do they make for a swift paced game of Klondike.

And that's all you really need from a Solitaire title. 3D Solitaire doesn't look to reinvent the game. Its lacklustre presentation and paucity of game modes is disappointing, but if you want a competent game of Klondike you need look no further.

3D Solitaire

3D Solitaire is nothing special, but it gets the fundamentals right in what is a totally satisfying game of cards for one
Score
Peter Willington
Peter Willington
Die hard Suda 51 fan and professed Cherry Coke addict, freelancer Peter Willington was initially set for a career in showbiz, training for half a decade to walk the boards. Realising that there's no money in acting, he decided instead to make his fortune in writing about video games. Peter never learns from his mistakes.