It's sleep and relaxation week here at iMore for Mobile Nations fitness month and today, we're going to take a look at relaxing game that everyone is familiar with -- Solitaire!
I learned how to play Solitaire as a little kid and even back then, I valued it as a nice, chill, relaxing game. Even though I had to play with physical cards those days, there was no denying it's therapeutic properties. Now that we have iPhones and iPads, this classic card game is more relaxing than ever, because we can play while kicking back on the couch or in bed.
Now, there are many different Solitaire apps available in the App Store, so the one I settled on for this review is Solitaire + by Finger Arts. (From this point forward, I will simply refer to the app as Solitaire).
Solitaire includes three levels of difficulty: easy, medium, and hard. Easy and medium always have solutions and hard games may not be winnable. For all levels, you can choose to draw one or three cards. Unfortunately, there is not an option to go through the deck only once if drawing one card at a time.
Playing Solitaire is just as you would expect. You can drag the cards around the board and if you try to place a card where it's not allowed, it will jump back to its original location. If you know a card can be moved and you want to save time, you can also simply tap it and the card will automatically be moved to the best location. You're also allowed to undo as many moves as you like and there's an option to get a hint. If you get all cards on the board, there will be an button to autocomplete the game so that you don't have to manually tap each individual card.
Solitaire is integrated with Game Center and includes a bunch of achievements. Solitaire also tracks your games so that you can see you statistics including best score, number games played and won, and the amount of playtime you've invested. These statistics are available for each game mode (draw one/three on easy/medium/hard) and overall.
You can change the look of Solitaire to have a classic felt green or beige background. For each background, you can also choose between three different deck colors.
If you are unfamiliar with the rules or scoring of solitaire, you can find everything you need in the Help section.
The good
- Three difficulty levels
- Choose to draw one or three cards
- Two different table looks
- Three different deck colors
- Option for extra large card symbols
- Hints
- Undo
- Statistics
- Support for both landscape and portrait
- Universal for iPhone and iPad
The bad
- No game mode where you draw one card at a time but only go through the deck once
The bottom line
Solitaire is a classic relaxing game and Finger Arts' execution of it is fantastic. If you're someone who plays on your iPhone or iPad right before going to sleep, close down Facebook and Twitter and pick up Solitaire, instead.
- $2.99 - [Download now](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/solitaire-?at=10l3Vy&ct=UUimUdUnU17512 /id518167210?mt=8&at=10l3Vy&ct=d_im)
