Solitaire Deluxe Bundle – 3 in 1

Genre: Compilation / Card Game (Solitaire)

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: Klondike Solitaire, included in this bundle, is also in 15 in 1 Family Games Mega Collection along with 2048 Battles, Adrenaline Rush – Miami Drive, Airborne Grannies, Bubble Cats Rescue, Classic Games Collection Vol. 1, Classic Games Collection Vol. 2, Flowlines VS, Go! Fish Go!, Go Kart Mania, Jet Ski Rush, Ludomania, Pet Shop Snacks, Pocket Foosball, and Quick Golf.)

Solitaire Deluxe Bundle – 3 in 1, released on Nintendo Switch in 2020, is a compilation of Klondike Solitaire, Freecell Solitaire Deluxe, and Spider Solitaire, each available separately on the eShop. I have reviewed each of these games separately, but they all share similar features, and similar flaws, which I’ll detail here. 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 it’s better in Klondike Solitaire than in the other two games, thanks to some nice lighting and shadow effects, though this has the downside of making it harder to see the cards at times. However, all three games overall look good, and are backed by a variety of music that’s apparently public domain, but that is still decent and there’s a good variety.

The first problem with these games is that 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.

As far as options go, Klondike Solitaire includes normal point-scoring and Vegas rules, as well as the choice between draw-one and draw-three variants. Spider Solitaire includes variants for one, two, and four suits. Freecell Solitaire Deluxe includes 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.

The price here is both good and bad. On the good side of things, $15 is a much better price compared to the $9 each of these games costs individually, and the $2 sale price is a pretty good bargain for the trio. Unfortunately, later the same year Solitaire Deluxe Bundle was released, this publisher would go on to release World of Solitaire, which includes similar versions of all of the included games plus two more, and it also sells for $15 and has gone on sale for $2.

That last point pretty much kills any reason you would ever want to buy this game. Let me be absolutely clear here – the three card games included here are all decent, albeit not perfect, versions of the respective games, and compared to the individual releases this is a pretty good deal. However, World of Solitaire includes similar content and more of it, for the same price. If you’re wanting a collection of good Card Games, you’re better off going for that one.

tl;dr –Solitaire Deluxe Bundle – 3 in 1 is a compilation of this publisher’s earlier releases Klondike Solitaire, Freecell Solitaire Deluxe, and Spider Solitaire, all decent versions of those respective card games. Compared to those individual releases, this is a pretty good deal too… but it’s also completely pointless when players can buy World of Solitaire and get more content for the same price. As such, I can’t see a good reason to recommend this game.

Grade: C

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