Facebook Bejeweled Blitz - Game History and Gameplay Overview

History

Bejeweled Blitz debuted on Facebook in December of 2008 and has since become one of the most popular games on the social networking site. The Bejeweled series of games have been around long before it ever came to Facebook. PopCap Games is the company behind this and many other puzzle type games that are available across a variety of platforms.

You can play Bejeweled Blitz on just about every gaming and computer platform that is available. There are free versions, like the one on Facebook, and commercial versions. In addition to versions that can be played in your web browser, you can also download it for your iPhone, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, and more. With its addictive gameplay that is simple to learn and tough to master, this little puzzle game has gone on to become one of the best-selling video games of all time.

Gameplay

Most anyone can learn how to play Facebook Bejeweled Blitz. All you have to do is match three or more colored jewels in a row, up or down, in order for them to be removed from the playing board. As you remove jewels, the remaining ones will fall into place and more will appear at the top. The goal of the game is to try and clear as many jewels as possible by setting up a cascading series of connections that will enable special power jewels and more. Your only interaction with the game is that you are allowed to move one jewel just one space at a time. The game is on a 60 second timer, so you have to act very quickly in order to find where all you need to move is one jewel in order to line up three or more in a row.

In early 2010, PopCap Games added some enhancements to Facebook Bejeweled Blitz that somewhat changed the gameplay in that you have more opportunities for better scores. They implemented a coin system where you can accumulate coins for clearing certain special jewels during a game. These coins can then be used to buy enhancements that will boost your score in the game, if played correctly. Another big addition is the ‘last hurrah’ which will clear the board of any unused special power jewels to give you some extra points when the round is over. By keeping things fresh, PopCap is assuring that people will keep coming back to play.

When you play Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook, you will sometimes get an advertisement for the full retail PC version of the game, but you don’t have to download or pay for anything in order to play Facebook Bejeweled Blitz. It’s totally free!

Tips

If you are looking for Facebook Bejeweled Blitz cheats, you aren’t going to find any easy ones. I’ve seen some that involved using hex editors to alter the Firefox web browser executable file, but I am not getting into that here. Instead, I’ll just offer up some tips that have helped me a lot while playing Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook.

Turn Off the Sound

For me, the best tip I can give anyone when it comes to Facebook Bejeweled Blitz is to play the game with the sound turned off. I find the game’s sound effects both distracting and annoying, even worse in the last few seconds when you get that tension-building music that doesn’t help anything. Since the game is entirely visual, I found that that I consistently get higher scores with the sound off. Try playing a few rounds for yourself and see if it makes a difference.

Let Them Drop

You will get better scores in the game if you set off chain reactions as the pieces fall into place. The best way to make this happen is to focus on the bottom of the pile so that you will get more movement up top. Although it is difficult to foresee the connections in the short amount of time you have to play, you can still do well to try and eliminate any jewels from the bottom before you work your way up top. Just keep an eye out for any opportunity to connect more than three at a time.

Pick a Color

One thing I like to do while playing is to pick one or two colors at a time and focus just on them. If I don’t find any good jewel matches, then I will move on to other colors. Maybe it’s just the way my brain recognizes objects, but if I actually seek out a couple of specific shapes instead of just scanning the whole board, I find it easier to clear certain jewels. This doesn’t always work perfectly since the locations of the jewels are random, but it is worth a try.

Know When to Quit Playing

One last thing about Facebook Bejeweled Blitz is that you need to know when to quit playing. With each game lasting only a minute, it’s incredibly easy to play 20 or 30 sessions in a row and not even realize how much time you’ve spent on the game. If you’re playing at work, you could get into serious trouble if the IT department is monitoring online usage, so be careful. I have found that my personal limit seems to be about a dozen sessions. It takes me a few to get warmed up, then I usually have a few good games before the scores start going back down. Just remember that this is only a game and you don’t have to obsess over it if somebody else has a higher score than you.