Roundup of Best Solitaire Games on iPhone
posted August 14th, 2008 11:17 AM EDT by arn in $0.99, $1.99, $2.99, $3.99, $4.99, $5.99, $9.99, Card, Free, Reviews, iPhone games, iPod touch games
The folks over at iLounge have taken on the daunting task of reviewing every Solitaire game on the App Store to come up with the following list.
There are 19 games of solitaire in the App Store from 12 different developers. Apps prices link to the App Store:
- Acid Solitaire Collection ($9.99, B-) - 3 games, good gameplay
- Cookie Bonus Solitaire ($2.99, B-) - cutesy interface, online mode
- Cookie Bonus Solitaire - Free (Free, B+) - same game but ad supported
- Demon Solitaire ($0.99, D) - very plain
- Las Vegas Solitaire ($2.99, D) - very plain
- MobilityWare Freecell ($1.99, D) - mediocre, limited single game
- MobilityWare Pyramid ($0.99, D) - mediocre, limited single game
- MobilityWare Solitaire ($1.99, D) - mediocre, limited single game
- Mondo Solitaire ($9.99, B+) - one of the best, over 100 types of solitaire, lots of play
- Platinum Solitaire ($3.99, B) - interface and depth are only so-so compared to others
- Pyramid Solitaire ($4.99, C) - simple pyramid solitaire game
- Pyramid Solitaire Lite (Free, D) - a few less options
- Solebon Solitaire ($9.99, C-) - 20 games, limited audio
- Wee Spider Solitaire ($4.99, C-) - 7 games
- Sol Free Solitaire (Free, B) - 3 games, very nice for free game
- Solitaire CAO ($4.99, D) - Klondike, demo-quality
- Solitaire City ($9.99, B) - impressive, online leaderboard, 13 games
- Solitaire Forever ($5.99, A-) - slick, 3D engine, over 150 games
- Solitaire Top 3 ($3.99, D-) - 3 games, simple
iLounge picks Mondo Solitaire ($9.99) and Solitaire Forever ($5.99, pictured above) as their top paid picks and Cookie Bonus Solitaire - Free (Free) and Sol Free Solitaire (Free) as their top free picks.
Solitaire City ($9.99) should get an honorable mention, however, due to its unique inclusion of an online leaderboard.
iLounge gets into far more detail and provides screenshots of every game in their extensive roundup.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
I’m glad to see Solitaire Forever get some love. It was one of the first apps that I bought and I still think its one of the (if not the best) Solitaire app on the AppStore.
August 14th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
For me it was between Mondo and Soleban. I chose Mondo and I don’t regret it. Still, either way you go between the two, they’re both fantastically done apps that have tremendous entertainment value.
August 14th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Solitaire Top 3 gets my vote for best implementation. It’s basically a copy of iSolitaire for jailbroken iPhones plus two other solitaire games I don’t care about (maybe it’s the same developer? I haven’t checked). For any fans of iSolitaire, Top 3 is the one you’re looking for.
August 14th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
BTW, their coverage of Top 3 was unfairly harsh, and it did not deserve a D-. If you just tilt the iPhone to horizontal layout when you first start, the cards are all visible at the correct zoom level. The only usability quibble is that is starts you out in vertical mode because the menu is laid out vertically. Once you tilt it horizontally, you’ve basically got iSolitaire, with the nicest graphic design of any of the options available. All these other ones, possibly with the exception of Mondo, make my eyes bleed, and there’s no way I’m spending $10 for a solitaire game…
August 14th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Another vote here for Top 3 aka iSolitaire. This game is way better than a D-.
August 14th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
AcidSolitaire Collection was robbed; robbed I tell ya!
August 14th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
So is solitaire the most redundant app in the store?
August 15th, 2008 at 3:02 am
No, flashlight is definately the most redundant app in the store. Or tip calculators.
August 15th, 2008 at 5:25 am
With regards to Mondo, there’s two major flaws which they didn’t mention which has seriously marred my enjoyment of the game.
Firstly, for any card that is not on the top level (ie: poking out from underneath another card), it is practically impossible to clearly make out what it is. The numbers for these cards get shrunk down and are much much smaller than those on the top level.
Secondly, there is an annoying “auto-play” feature that you can not turn off whereby if you select / touch any one card, the matching card for it is automatically selected or played. So for a game like Angkor Wat (similar to Mah-Jong, but with cards) to pick a random example game, you don’t even have to think at all, to find matching pairs. You just click once on any card and the matching card is automatically selected, played and cleared. Where’s the challenge in that? You can just blindly tap tap tap away at the screen. Heck, even a blindfolded monkey could do this.
August 15th, 2008 at 5:35 am
Furthermore, Cookie Bonus Solitaire’s layout is even worse than that of Mondo Solitaire, in terms of being able to see the underlying cards that are not on the top level.
No matter how good your eyesight is, you literally cannot see what these cards are, because the top cards totally cover them!
Sure, you might be able to see that it’s a red 8 or a black 3, but what suit? Hearts? Diamonds? Clubs? Spades? Who knows…
August 16th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Top 3 is definitely a lot better than most of the other ones. The cards are the clearest and easiest to read of the solitaire’s I’ve seen, and it’s easy to pick a card and use it in landscape mode. The only thing to improve are having a little larger numbers on the cards and possibly to make it not scroll when the cards get more than about 10 deep.
I don’t understand these reviewers.
August 17th, 2008 at 2:21 am
I’d have to give a shout out to the free Solebon Solitaire by Smallware.
It’s got the strictest Klondike rules but the interface is probably the best. What I like about it is that you don’t have to drag each card; rather, you can just touch a card you want to move, and then touch where you want it to go.
For me dragging all the time wears my finger out.
August 27th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
I don’t need 150 games. I really don’t know anyone who does.
Actually, there is usually only one or two games like this that you want to play at all. The rest are a waste.
So far, I’ve found Sol Free to be very good. It’s now added 2 more games for those who care.
Worth at least the B it was given.
August 29th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
I tried most of those games myself and Solitaire City is my clear winner. It has online leaderboard, good graphics, nice control, a smooth interface and very different games with many rule sets to choose from. Mondo Solitaire may have more games, but the controls are not nearly as responsive and the graphics are not that good.
The only game I didn’t test on the iPhone is Solitaire Forever. It looks interesting but the high price and the small and unreadable cards in some of the games in the windows demo (iPhone mode is available) made me pass it for now. Maybe if they add online leaderboards I will buy it and give it a chance. At least the interface feels and looks very responsive in the windows demo and that is a must have feature (that most of the other games don’t offer) in my opinion.