14 DAY TRIAL // Downloadable games are becoming more and more important these days for regular users, not just casual ones, and this is largely due to PopCap Games, the company that brought titles like Plants vs. Zombies, Zuma or Peggle into the hands of the masses.
This year, the company reached into its franchise hall of fame and delivered Bejeweled 3, a full-pledged sequel after releasing two spin-off titles, Bejeweled: Twist and Blitz.
While the core jewel-matching mechanics are still there, Bejeweled 3 really adds in some great ideas, from playing poker with the jewels, to preventing avalanches, uncovering artifacts in the sand or diffusing bombs by blowing them up before they explode (logic doesn't play a big role here).
Besides these new ideas, PopCap still kept the traditional classic mode, as well as a pretty interesting Zen one, which aims at calming you down after other, more intense modes, through a variety of options, including displaying positive statements, showing you when to breathe or playing soothing music.
Playing all these modes without a certain goal can get boring though, but the company introduced a Challenge mode, where you go through each mode and need to fulfill certain requirements in order to proceed.
These range from matching a certain number of jewels in as few moves as possible, getting a high enough score in poker or finding artifacts as fast as possible, and, by the end of it, can become almost inhumane in terms of difficulty.
What's more, an in-game achievement system was also added to make players aim for certain tasks in order to boast their accomplishments to their friends.
Sadly, online features like leaderboards aren't present in Bejeweled 3, but it's probably among the few drawbacks of this title.
By keeping its traditional roots, adding lots of new features, challenges and achievements, Bejeweled 3 is our Best Downloadable Game of the Year.
The game is currently available from the PopCap website for the PC and Mac OSX platforms, at just $19.95, and if you buy it, a free copy will be donated to the Child's Play charity foundation.
