Intro

PopCap's Bejeweled series of games has always been most popular on pc. With 3 mainline games, 3 spinoffs, a plug-and-play exclusive to North-America and even a board game being made as of the time I'm writing this. But that doesn't mean it's only available on pc. Several bejeweled games, especially 2, have been ported to pretty much everything from the 2000s with the ability to play games. Phones, PDAs, mac, handhelds, arcade cabinets and the thing I want to talk about here, consoles (mostly xbox).

Bejeweled on the OG Xbox

Presentation

The game is mostly unchanged as presentation wise, with the only difference being a different backdrop and a proper title screen, as supposed to the PC release, which acted more like it's flash counterpart.

Controls

Since bejeweled wasn't made with consoles in mind, the controls would have to be adapted in one way or another. Eventually they decided on controlling the cursor with the d-pad like arrow keys and the left analog stick for faster movement. Selecting a gem would require the player to hold the A button as a placeholder for left-click on a standard computer mouse. You can also press the Y button for a hint.

Bejeweled 2/Bejeweled 2 Deluxe

*slaps car roof*, This baby got more ports than a prototype PS3

Bejeweled 2 was ported to everything with a screen a the time, here is a list.

• Windows
• macOS
• Adobe Flash
• PopCap Plugin
• PalmOS
• Xbox 360
• PlayStation 2
• PlayStation 3
• PlayStation Portable
• In-Flight Entertainment
• Nintendo Wii-Ware
• Arcade Machines
• iOS
• Android
• Symbian 3
• Blackberry Playbook
• Brew

Some of these ports, including the Xbox 360 version, included everything from the PC version and had the subtitle Deluxe to differentiate themselves from ports like the Wii Ware version, which had a reduced soundtrack and half the game modes.

Presentation

There is not much distinction between the PC and Xbox 360/PS3/Wii versions aside from resolution and aspect ratio with the Xbox 360 version being in 720 and 16:9, while the PC version runs in 1024 x 768 and a 4:3 aspect ratio. The Wii version also run in 16:9 widescreen, but in 480p instead of 720p due to technical restraints. The arcade version works in a similar way, with the main differences being aan invisible cursor and an altered UI where the points gauge is a timer and there are six fixed levels displayed on the left side of the screen.

Controls

The Xbox 360, PS2/3 and PSP versions of the game control the same way that the original on Xbox does and most portable versions use a stylus/capacitive touch.

Bejeweled 3

Ports

Bejeweled 3 was also ported to a dozen or so devices.
Here is a list of platforms this game came out for;

• Windows
• macOS
• Adobe Flash
• PlayStation 3
• Xbox 360
• Nintendo DS
• Java ME
• HTML 5
• iOS
• Android
• Windows Phone 7
• Windows Phone 8

As you can see, there are a lot of ports. Not as many a Bejeweled 2, but nothing to scoff at either.

Presentation

Aside from differences in graphical fidelity due to the wide variety of systems and control schemes and the Windows Phone 7 version using Bejeweled 2 music, there is not much deviation between these versions. The biggest deviation is the Flash version just being a demo with only the classic mode being playable.

Controls

The controls for most ports are unchanged from bejeweled 2. The PC version is still controlled with a mouse/keyboard and the mobile versions are all touch screen based. The console versions however, have a new option available. With these new controls, you use the analog stick to move and the face buttons to for swapping gems (IE, A = down, Y = up, X =left, and B = right). This control scheme, which was created for Bejeweled Blitz Live by Torpex Games, feels very responsive compared to holding the a button and a direction on the d-pad. This made the game feel a bit more snappy and precise.

Bejeweled Blitz Live

Funky Techo Blitz

This game is a bit of an odd one as it's the last bejeweled to not have some kind of fantasy aesthetic. It instead went for a "90s techno arcade" kind of look and sound. It makes the game really stand out really nicely when put next to any other variant of Bejeweled Blitz.

Presentation

As I just stated in the last paragraph, this game goes hard as fuck for a tile-matching game. Everything has at least some kind of sci-fi styling, from the font to the music and circuit board pattern background. I might elaborate on this in a review for this game specifically, so I'll keep it vague for now.

Controls

This game uses a new control scheme courtesy of Torpex Games. I'll explain both control styles for both game modes.

Classic

In this mode the left analog stick controls your cursor, this is the only console version of Bejeweled where the cursor moves outside the typical grid of 8x8 gems. It's only there cosmetically, but it makes the gameplay feel a lot more fluid than any of the previous games on console. Swapping games is done with the face buttons. For instance, hitting A will swap the selected gem with the one below it and hitting Y will do the same but for the gem above. This is a very helpful addition for a game that's a fast-paced as Bejeweled Blitz. This would be carried on as a secondary option in Bejeweled 3.

Twist

Here you move the cursor the same way you do in Classic Mode, but instead of swapping 2 adjacent gems, you rotate 4 gems clockwise or counterclockwise, this allows the player a far bigger degree of freedom when making matched and even allows them to set up massive chain reactions that can clear the whole board. Twist mode replicates the controls of Bejeweled Twist on a controller, to twist you either press X/Y or LT to rotate left and A/B or RT to rotate left.

Conclusion

I don't have anything else to say other than I wanted to do something like this for a couple of months now, but I couldn't find the motivation to do it. The thing that pushed me over the edge was the closure of the Xbox 360 marketplace and the Bejeweled Blitz Live leaderboards. In other words, I was looking for a excuse to talk about Bejeweled Blitz Live as it's my favorite Bejeweled game and the latest review I could find was 12 years old as of the time I'm writing this.
While I do still recommend most people play the PC versions of these games due the fact that they're free to download from The Internet Archive, I also think it's interesting to see that here was a time when even tile-matching games were alot more consumer friendly and just a one-time-purchase. Nowadays you'll be hardpressed to find even a handful of popular mobile games that are like that. It's a shame, really.
I will stop myself now, lest I'd be here rambling on about this all day. I hope your day is going well, and I bid you all adieu. ;)