Bejeweled is an easy game for someone like me, who grew up with Puyo Puyo and Tetris Attack/Panel De Pon, to write off as just some timewaster like you’d see on those touchscreen games at bars or clubs, or that come with your phone. In the same breath, all games are timesinks, but Tetris Attack at least had great character and gratification that came from the amount of attention that was given to the gameplay balance and sound design. Western games like Bejeweled and Peggle on the other hand have about the same aesthetic brillance as Lisa Frank stationery.

But I will always love “time attack” style gameplay. Bejeweled Blitz is making me realize just how much. For those of you that only play actual games, this is a version of Bejeweled that you play on Facebook. It tracks the scores of all your Facebook friends that play. If your score (times 2) and the scores of all your friends add up to over 1 million, you get entered into a drawing to win a Popcap branded laptop that week. It’s made for quick pick up and play sessions; there’s only one gameplay mode and it’s only one minute long.

I tried Bejeweled 2 on PC after playing Blitz for a while, but it’s not the same. The fun in the game comes from the time restraint, where every move matters. Because the time is so limited, Blitz adds “blazing speed” mode and multiplier jewels.  You are rewarded for each move you make in rapid succession of the last until you reach the top of that scale which activates blazing speed: it only lasts for a few seconds or so, but each match in this mode causes explosions shattering gems around it, netting you crazy points. Even if you manage to access this bonus though, it won’t make a lot of difference unless you’ve got a few multipliers under your belt. Multipliers appear if you make a lot of jewels explode in a single move, which can sometimes happen just making multiple matches of 3′s, but usually you’ll want to make matches of 4′s or 5′s which make jewels that cause cascading explosions.

To summarize, this is like the manic version of Bejeweled. They didn’t just attach a time limit, they toyed with the scoring system in such a way that you feel like you’re being pushed to the finish line. Making a big enough cascade can push your score over the edge and give you a higher score than seemed possible before. It’s really pretty good, and not even in the “empty calorie” way like Peggle. It could be argued that the game is kind of random, where some boards just hand you better matches than others, but when each match is only a minute it’s not that big of a complaint. The game could, however, use some sort of quick restart for when you know it’s just not your match.

Seeing companies like Capcom and Hudson showing interest in mobile gaming, I wonder if they’ll start to look at gaming on social networking sites as well. Some Star Soldier caravan mode perhaps? At the very least I’m hoping for more fast action games, although we’ll probably just see a bunch of Farmville clones. UGH FARMVILLE

Speaking of Tetris Attack earlier made me want to pick Planet Puzzle League for the DS back up again. I think I’d have a few things to say about that one. But I’ve been wanting to write about another time attack game for a long time now: Pac-Man Championship Edition. Or maybe I’ll just forget I even had a gaming journal for another two months. We’ll see!