This review originally appeared within iLounge’s iOS Gems series within the compilation article, iPhone Gems: Every Solitaire Game, Reviewed. Additional details may be found in the original article.
Cookie Bonus Solitaire ($3) and Cookie Bonus Solitaire – Free (Free) by Amplified Games are cartoony, enhanced versions of Klondike with one major difference: the free version has in-game advertising from JCPenney’s, while the paid version doesn’t. In our view, it’s not worth the $3 to skip the ad, and frankly, we wouldn’t be hugely bothered to see a simple thing like that pop up in the future if it can effectively remove an app’s cost to consumers.
While Cookie Bonus Solitaire’s cutesy interface may not make sense at first, the game has been designed to make classic Klondike a little more fun. Certain cards are marked with bonus points or cookie rewards that help you complete the game more quickly, and there’s a sidebar with cheats to ease the gameplay. One will show you all the face down cards, another reshuffles the deck, and so on.
The emphasis in this game is fun, rather than sophistication. Our only knocks on it are the scattered touch interface, which makes you drag rather than using easy tapping to complete certain motions, though it toes auto-complete under certain conditions; similarly, there’s no music, just plain sound effects.
There’s also an online mode that lets users chat with other users, and get score updates while they’re playing. The feature worked after registration when we visited, and we found the rooms full of players, but there was some adult language on display; it’s not a great idea for younger players to visit until Amplified puts some more protection in place.
