Gamebox Gems Review

No genre is more prosperous on the Palm platform than puzzle games. The tradition continues with Gamebox Gems for the Tapwave Zodiac/Palm OS. The game mimics what I assume is its closest relative, Bejeweled. However, there are multiple variations of the same concept, so the fun is spread evenly between them.

Gamebox Gems is loaded with games. It comes with Sunstone Swap, Jewel Master, Rising Diamonds, Stone Stacker, Stone Stacker +, Sapphire Spires, Crystal Cave-in, and Ruby Connection. The rest of the review will focus on my favorite game variations, in descriptive detail.

In Sunstone Swap, you’re trying to beat the red time bar, by filling up the blue bar with matches. Three gems vertically or horizontally equal a match. More than three will add bonus points to your score. You have the option to drag your gems or tap them. Dragging is preferred by me, but I’d rather tap them, and swap pieces. Instead, you move in a clockwise/counterclockwise motion, making it hard to make a strategy.

In Jewel Master, you must remove all gems from the board. You do this by double tapping the screen where two or more gems of the same color are located. The dimensions of the gems will range, and might be 4×4 or as large as 8×8. Obviously this means that planning out which gems to remove is the biggest element of this game. If you’re stuck with any gems at the end, you lose a pitchfork. Lose all three and you’re done.

My favorite of all is Stone Stacker +. In this game, you have to drop gems into place where they touch three gems of the same color, of which they will disappear. Use the hard keys to move the gem over (left=red, right=yellow), then press down (green) to drop it. You’ll get power-ups such as a saw, which chews up all gems in one row, a bomb which will explode with a fireball, along with a few other things.

With loads of games in one program. I don’t see how you can go wrong with GameBox Gems, especially at $14.99. The presentation, replay value, and overall experience is all quite impressive for a puzzle game that revolves around gems.