Jigsaw's Rants & Reviews

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Soltrio Solitaire Mini Review

While I was waiting around for the Halo 3 beta to be release last night I took some time to check out Soltrio Solitaire even though I knew I was not going to buy the full version. The game looks decent enough, but I never though the graphics would be an issue. My biggest issue with this game is that they are charging $10 for a set of 18 versions of solitaire. $10 may not sound like a lot of money, but when I can play the same games on my PC for free it is. Not only can I play them free on my PC, but they play better on my PC. Because there is no mouse to play with on the Xbox 360 they have setup the game so that when you move the controller around the screen to select cards it jumps from card to card instead of moving around freely. I found this extremely frustrating because it slowed down how fast I could play the game. They tried to compensate for this somewhat by giving you a quick play button. By moving the cursor over a card and hitting B it would play that in the best available spot. The problem with this is that if there are multiple places the card could play you have no control with this method on where the card goes. Instead you have to pick up the card with the A button and painstakingly move it where you want it. When I play card games I want to go from play to play as fast as possible. So, I was glad to see they included options to speed up the animations, but even on the fastest setting the animations were still to slow for my tastes. After about 5 minutes I was getting pissed about how slow the game plays. The achievements for Soltrio Solitaire are pretty standard with some you could get easily and others you're going to have to work for. However, even if you are a big solitaire fan this game is just to cumbersome to play for more than a game or two. The only case I can see for recommend getting this game is if you have a spouse/girlfriend/mistress that you want to get into console gaming and they really like solitaire. In that case it might be worth the $10 to get them to play on your Xbox 360, but keep in mind that if they get into console gaming you may end up having to shell out another $400 bucks for a second Xbox 360.

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posted by Andy at 1:28 PM

6 Comments:

  • I know this is a mini review, but I would like to point out that there is more to the game than only solitaire which I think it's tempting for folks to categorize Soltrio with plain ol solitaire for a comparison.

    While there certainly are some challenges with designing a control scheme to play solitaire on a controller vs a mouse, it just take a little getting use to.

    What you may have missed in the demo since Multiplayer is only offered in local mode for the demo, is that Multiplayer is a WHOLE other game really. Far from the laid back Patient game, it's a head to head battle that really changes the mood.

    SO if just playing solitaire was worth 1/2 the game, the other half is something that you don't want to miss in the review.

    Also, voyage mode is another aspect that makes individual games go toward a bigger goal, in fact you unlock rewards like new backgrounds and card elements as you make your way thorough voyage.

    The card building is a neat thing as well, as you unlock elements, you can assemble the pieces into cards that even show up when you play in multi player online. It's kinda like scrap booking, you earn the doodads and make something pretty to show off to other players.

    Anyhow, just wanted to chime in that it's more than just a direct comparison to Windows solitaire.

    -Jonas

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At May 17, 2007 3:49 PM  

  • Jonas - thanks for checking out the mini review. I have trouble with the idea of multiplayer solitaire. I thought the whole point of "solitaire" was that it is a single player game.

    By Anonymous Jigsaw hc, At May 17, 2007 4:03 PM  

  • I enjoy playing double solitare (in real life), but considering the not ideal control scheme, I'm not too sure how well that would work out.

    By Blogger Taylor M, At May 17, 2007 4:49 PM  

  • yeah it's definitely a little weird saying "multi player solitaire" but it's the most understandable label to explain what the game is about.

    It's similar but very different. In that I mean, you get much of the same logic of solitaire involved but in a way that there is a lot of competitiveness and it's pretty Cut throat in VS.

    Now CoOP on the other hand has a totally different feel since you and your partner are working together, a great game for spouses to play, where you don't end up sleeping on the couch :)

    -jonas

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At May 17, 2007 5:38 PM  

  • Soltrio rocks, for my girlfriend and thats cool. I can now play the Halo beta with out..........well with!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At May 20, 2007 6:57 PM  

  • Love the map play! I didn't think I would like it, you know its solitaire, but I was hooked for hours. Well worth the cost of a few gallons of gas.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At May 24, 2007 10:59 AM  

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