Review by: Danielle Riendeau

It’s quite likely that you’re one of the millions of people who have played some form of Bejeweled in your life (only the timeless Tetris seems to beat it in terms of sheer ubiquity), but just in case you are not, well…welcome to the madness. You have a 2D field of gems, and you are tasked with moving them so that you match three or more in vertical or horizontal lines. The more you match, the more gem-breaking goodies you get. It’s simple, hence the nigh universal appeal, and about as addictive as chocolate chip crack.

Twist brings with it a unique “spin” mechanic. No, you won’t be physically twisting your DS - instead, you tap on a circle of four gems and tap to rotate them clockwise. You do this instead of sliding them left or right, forcing you to think in terms of rotation. It makes things different enough that you’ll immediately change your strategy – thinking two or three moves ahead becomes a matter of thinking in clicks and slides instead of swipes, making it play differently enough to justify a new addiction.

Adding to the excitement are bomb blocks (you need to match and clear them off the board before the timer runs out), fire blocks (that erupt when matched, clearing a small section), lightning blocks (which blast out full vertical and horizontal lines) and coal (which get you points if destroyed by the other elemental gems). There are also ultra-rare supernova gems, which appear if you make a six-gem match and blast through several rows of blocks.

But wait, there’s more! Fruit gems give you tasty bonuses, doom gems punish you for making non-matching twists (they can be destroyed by fire or lightning) and “locked” gems can’t be moved, but they can easily be taken care of with regular matches.

You have four modes wherein you can achieve gem-busting nirvana. The hectic “classic” mode, which includes all of the chaotic elemental gems (and very temperamental bombs), Zen, where you play without bombs of doom gems (happily leveling up in a relaxed, Zen-like state. You earn points and “level up” as you go through the game, unlocking the other two modes: Blitz (where you try to make as many matches as possible in 5 minutes) and Challenge (where you complete certain challenges – hitting certain scores or achieving other feats within a match).

As a certified Puzzle Quest addict, the slightly revamped mechanics, along with the ranking up system, had me fully hooked. I played so much that I’d be staring off into space, imagining fields of gems that I could twist into submission. The keys on my laptop began to resemble colorful 2D blocks after one marathon session. If you suffer from the kind of compulsive-puzzle-addiction that I do, consider yourself warned.