World of Solitaire

Genre: Compilation / Card Game (Solitaire)

Players: 1

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Review:

World of Solitaire, released on Nintendo Switch in 2020, is a Compilation of five Solitaire card games – Klondike, Freecell, Spider, Pyramid, and TriPeaks. The options, gameplay, and presentation of these games is somewhat comparable to this publisher’s earlier releases, Klondike Solitaire, Freecell Solitaire Deluxe, and Spider Solitaire, and their own Compilation package Solitaire Deluxe Bundle – 3 in 1, although in World of Solitaire they have been combined into one more cohesive package with unlockable content that crosses over between the included games, and a new presentation with an underwater theme, though this Compilation re-uses a lot of the assets from the earlier games.

As these games are classic card games and likely older than anyone currently reading this review, I’ll be focusing mainly on the presentation, features, options, and performance of this game.

The presentation here is good, although I think the lighting and shadow effects that were in the earlier release of Klondike Solitaire were better. In addition, the “underwater” effect on some tables makes the cards much harder to read, making it functionally useless unless players are looking for a “challenge” mode of sorts. Still, despite these issues the presentation here is overall polished and looks good, and the gameplay is backed by a variety of music that’s apparently public domain, but that is still decent and there’s a good variety.

However, as I complained about in each of the prior reviews, all of that content I mentioned needs to be unlocked through play, and players who don’t like the music or presentation options available at the start are stuck with it. What’s more, players cannot choose what to unlock, it simply happens automatically when players reach certain point thresholds. On the positive side, these games sharing that progression means that you won’t have to be doing it all over again from the start with each different card game, which I suppose is a silver lining.

As far as options go, Klondike includes normal point-scoring and Vegas rules, as well as the choice between draw-one and draw-three variants. Spider includes variants for one, two, and four suits. Freecell, Pyramid, and TriPeaks all include no variants. And all of these games include instructions on how to play, but no tutorial.

The controls here are pretty good, although the game makes the odd choice to make players manually select whether they want to use gamepad or touch controls, rather than both being enabled at the same time. Both controls work fine, though moving the cursor around with the gamepad can feel a bit stiff.

One thing this package does have going for it is the price, though. This game is normally priced at $15, only $6 more than each of the individual card games in this series costs on its own, and the same price as Solitaire Deluxe Bundle – 3 in 1 (despite that this package has more content). However, if you can catch this game on sale, it can be found as low as $2, which is an excellent deal if you can catch it.

If you’re looking for a good variety of Solitaire Card Games with a solid presentation, decent options, and a good price, World of Solitaire is a great choice, especially if you get it on sale. The game could definitely do with improvement in a lot of places, but overall this is a good value for the content included here.

tl;dr –World of Solitaire is a Compilation that includes five Solitaire games – Klondike, Freecell, Spider, Pyramid, and TriPeaks. While this package has its fair share of flaws, overall the options here are good, the presentation is solid, and the value of the amount of content compared to the price (especially if you get it on sale) is pretty high. If you’re looking for a Compilation of Card Games on Nintendo Switch, this is a good choice.

Grade: B-

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