Review by: Brandon "Butterfly" Cackowski-Schnell

As someone who has played plenty of match three games over the past few years, but has never played the game that started it all, I was somewhat leery of Bejeweled 3, thinking that it would probably be good however if I can match three gems to kick off a massive spell or smite an ogre, what draw would there be in just matching them to match them? Boy was I dumb.

There's a reason the match three genre exploded and the people at PopCap have been more than paying attention to the various twists other studios have placed on its already winning formula. Whether you're looking for a vanilla game of gem matching, a strategic "think three moves ahead" kind of match or the knuckle biting intensity of a constantly counting down timer, PopCap's latest has you covered. The king is back baby, and all hail the king.

Having played most of my match three games on the DS, booting up and playing a game of Bejeweled on a PC is literally an eye opening experience. Gems shine and sparkle, explosions are explosive, lightning shoots off of the screen and colors burst as the screen becomes a riot of colors and sounds every time a particularly momentous set of matches takes place. Oh, did you miss what happened there and you want to see just how you managed to match 40 gems in a row? Hit the handy replay, complete with video rewinding animation, and watch the mega-matching in all of its glory. Honestly, after playing the game on a PC with a decent video card, going back to playing match three variants on my DS will be a dodgy proposition.

As pretty as the visuals are, the best part of the game is the variety of game modes that allow you to tailor your experience to however you're feeling at the moment. The classic game mode is here, if all you want is to match gems and see how many levels you can get under your belt. If you're looking for something more strategic, try the poker mode in which making a match nets you a card with whatever gem you just matched on it. Different hands have different point values ranging from a measly pair all the way up to a flush. The better the hand the higher the points and, as a devious twist, as you progress through the game the lower hands will become marked with a skull meaning that making that hand results in a coin flip to decide whether your game continues or ends there and then. It's a game that requires you to think in advance more than any of the other game modes and it's a great mode for players that have been playing a lot of Puzzle Quest type games where move planning is the key to victory.

On the timed side, three different modes allow you to throw "relaxing" out of the window and frantically make matches until the time expires or you undergo cardiac arrest. Lightning mode has you making matches against the clock with large matches adding time to your constantly dwindling timer. Ice Storm has the board's columns constantly filling up with ice, ice that can be tamped down momentarily with a horizontal match and smashed completely with a vertical match. It's extremely stressful and I hate it, despite playing it constantly. Diamond mine has you making matches to blow away clods of dirt and uncover gold and other precious metals and artifacts, moving ever deeper until, you got it, the timer runs out.

Somewhere in between lies the Quest Mode, which gives you eight different tasks to complete, spread out amongst all of the game modes, as well as some other modes unique to the Quest Mode itself. Complete the task and you'll get a gem for the current artifact. Get four gems and you can move on to the next artifact, or you can get four more gems and bedazzle the heck out of the current artifact. Then there's Butterfly mode, my personal favorite. As you make matches, winged butterfly gems appear that can only be set free by making a match with them. Make a move that doesn't set them free and they'll move one spot closer to the top of the board where a hungry spider waits to devour them.