Does anyone actually swap gems in the real world? Do jewellers unwind at the end of the working day by spreading a bunch of diamonds on the counter and moving them around? Do countesses switch their pearls around for an hour before going out to dinner?
Surely not. It's only in the field of casual gaming that gem-swapping has become ever-present.
Bejeweled 2 has already appeared on the App Store, along with the equally jewel-fixated
Diamond Twister. Both were excellent, too, with touchscreen controls making them a joy to play. Now it's
Jewel Quest II's turn to hit the iPhone.
Its core gameplay remains the same as the mobile version, in that you have to make lines of three or more jewels (or 'relics' as the game has it) to make them disappear, turning the tiles behind them gold in the process. There is a storyline about a bloke called Rupert, but you'll find yourself tapping through those bits to get to the next level. After all, it's about gameplay and there's not point in weaving some jem-questing yarn.
You create matches by swapping adjacent jewels, tapping one then dragging it towards the other. Completing a level means turning all the tiles gold before your time limit runs out. Like its rivals,
Jewel Quest II benefits from the touchscreen, which feels more natural than moving a cursor around using a mobile keypad. The game looks good too, with graphics that have an attractive hand-drawn feel.
Along with jewels, you can match gold coins on the board, which you can then use to turn individual spaces gold. This is essential, particularly as you encounter strange-shaped levels with hard-to-reach corners. With more than 50 levels to explore, the game presents a decent challenge for puzzle fans, with the addictive qualities that will make you want to blast through them as quickly as possible.
It's a classy game, even though it lacks the power-ups seen in its rivals, not to mention the various game modes sported by
Diamond Twister- which costs £2.99/$4.99 compared to the £5.49/$8.99 you pay for
Jewel Quest II.
It's solid puzzling, but could do with being a bit cheaper and having a few more features to have a chance of topping the iPhone match-three puzzle league.
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