Those of you who have been either a Windows Mobile or a Palm OS user will probably be familiar with the venerable Astraware Solitaire. As one of the best card games available on many platforms, Astraware have now brought some slick and full featured Solitaire to the iPhone.
Hit the read link to see what we thought.
Astraware is pretty well known for producing decent looking games that play well and stand up to repeated play. This is where Astraware Solitaire really excels packing in 12 different solitaire games into a single well worked package. The animations are all smooth and fluid from the card shuffles to the deck explosions that mark your success. If you’re in a hurry you can skip the animations simply by tapping making re-racking fast for the next game or deactivate them entirely. The game includes 52 trophy cards that are awarded for various tasks similar to PS3 trophies. Once you’ve managed to earn all 52 cards you can then use them as a special deck in the game which gives you something more to aim for than simple statistics. Talking of statistics Astraware Solitaire tracks your wins, losses, streaks and of course time played per game type, allowing you to see that you’ve lost so many more times than you’ve won, if you’re anything like me.
Each of the 12 game variants have different options available along with layout changes that help orientate the game to left or right-handedness. Each game also has a pretty comprehensive how to play help screen that teaches you the basics of the game should you not be familiar with it or need a refresher. The card fronts can be varied between large poker faces or the more traditional deck, whilst the backs can also be changed with many different colours and graphics available at the start with more that can be unlocked as you play. The same can be said for the backdrop on which you play, with simple colour variations available initially and many more to be unlocked as you play. You can of course use a photo from your album should you have something a bit more to your liking stored on your iPhone or iPod touch.
One touch control is also available as an option, should you not want to move the cards manually about on the screen. This speeds up play dramatically with intelligent card movement from simply tapping on the desired card. You can of course pick the card up in the one-touch mode for more precise interaction, but one-touch mode really helps one handed play. Some simple and appropriate sound effects are also included with the game which add a little to the play experience. They can be switched off if they get irritating but they will also sound out even if you’ve got your iPod music playing through. Astraware haven’t added any background music to the game, but to be honest none of the music included with most apps isn’t up to much and I would rather just play some songs from my iPod.
Overall Astraware Solitaire is a decent addition to the card game section of the App Store. Combining 12 of the most popular games with nice animation and unlockables makes Astraware Solitaire stand out from the bunch. Currently it’s available for the bargain basement price of $0.99 (£0.59) so if you’re in the market for a new solitaire game, grab it while it’s hot. Check the gallery and video run through below just in case you can’t make your mind up.
