PopCap has announced the upcoming release of Bejeweled Blitz on Xbox Live Arcade. Bejeweled Blitz is the same fast paced matching game that appeared on Facebook, but has all new modes for Xbox Live. Players can compete against sixteen other friends in the party mode. If competing against sixteen of your friends sounds a little intimidating, there is a head to head battle mode, as well. This mode lets players compete against one other person.

Players have the opportunity to play in the classic Bejeweled mode or the new twist mode. Twist mode can be more challenging in a fast paced game. Players have to be able to see the matches and make the matches before time runs out.

Bejeweled Blitz will be available the first quarter of this year on Xbox Live.

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MumboJumbo has announced the release of Chainz Galaxy HD and Luxor HD for the iPad. Chainz Galaxy HD is a match three game where players try to build up a colorful linked world. Luxor HD is a marble popper game where players have to match three of the same color marbles to clear them off the board.

Chainz Galaxy HD takes advantage of the iPad’s multi-touch feature, allowing players to touch multiple links at a time. The faster players can make matches the better power ups they receive. There are four different play modes including Classic, Arcade, Puzzle, and Strategy modes.

Luxor HD is a popular marble shooter for the PC, but has been redesigned to bring the fun to the iPad. Players have to shoot marbles at a moving line of marbles in an attempt to match three of the same color marbles. The marbles that are matched will clear from the board. The goal is to clear all of the marbles off the board. The iPad version has 88 levels of shooting madness with four different play modes.

If you own an iPad are a Luxor fan or enjoy match three style games, head over to Apple’s App store and pick up a copy of Luxor HD or Chainz Galaxy HD.

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PopCap has announced the release of Bejeweled 3. Bejeweled 3 is the first true sequel to the Bejeweled franchise. The new version offers twice the game modes and throws in some mini-games to mix things up. The graphics and sound have been redone, too.

The 3 classic modes still exist in Bejeweled. Players will be able to enjoy the match three action of the original Bejeweled only with updated power ups like the powerful Star gem in Classic mode. For those players that like fast action, there is Lightening mode and for the players on the opposite spectrum, the ones that like a slower pace, there is Zen mode.

The four new modes  are:

• Butterflies – Match the butterfly gems to free them before they ascend the board. If they flutter all the way to the top, the spider wins!
• Poker -  make matches to create poker hands, with better hands scoring more points. Avoid “outlawed” hands as the game progresses, or only a lucky flip of the coin can save you.
• Diamond Mine – delve deep beneath the earth by exploding gems to tunnel downward. Unearth gold, artifacts and Hypercubes to score big!
• Ice Storm – Hold back the rising ice floe in this chilling, speed-based variation. Match gems quickly to keep columns of frost at bay.

There are enough modes available in Bejeweled 3 for any type of player to find an enjoyable mode. If you are a Bejeweled fan, check out Bejeweled 3.

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Bejeweled has been the face of casual games for a long time, much less of the “match 3″ subgenre. It and its imitators can be found everywhere, from Puzzle Quest to World of Warcraft mini-apps.

One of the challenges of a Bejeweled 3 is that there is very little to the formula you can actually add or change. Bejeweled Twist (review) managed to add some life by adding a new selection mechanic, but otherwise, a vanilla sequel would need much more. Bejeweled 3 accomplishes this by adding fresh new game modes.

Of course, it includes the base game, in which you match 3 gems to score. Four gems matched creates an explosive Flame gem. Matching five gems creates the Hypercube which can be matched with another gem to eliminate all gems of that color. Two holdovers from Bejeweled Twist can be found in 3: the Star gem and the Supernova gem. The Star gem is created when a T or L shape is matched with gems – when ignited, the Star gem shoots lasers in four directions and destroys the gems in their paths. The Supernova gem is even more difficult to create: matching six or more gems in a row, which can only be done in a complicated string of explosions. When a Supernova gem explodes, it does the same as the Star gem, only with three rows in four directions. The game ends when there’s no more matches to be made. One of the new twists is that if two Hypercubes are matched, they remove all of the gems from the board, save themselves.

That’s fine, but a slight rehash of Bejeweled 2 isn’t enough to justify a sequel. That’s why Bejeweled 3 comes with a bunch of variations of the concept.

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PopCap Games has announced the upcoming release of Bejeweled 3. There hasn’t been a true sequel to Bejeweled in six years and that is about to change.  Bejeweled 3 will contain new content as well as an entirely new level.

Bejeweled 3 takes the match 3 genre of games to a new level with high-definition graphics. The game levels have been updated and expanded since Bejeweled 2. There are four all-new secret games including Ice Storm and Poker, which offer new interpretations of the Bejeweled theme. Bejeweled 3 still contains a quest mode and that quest mode contains eleven different mini-games and forty total quests.

“Casual video games have been popular going back to the 1980s, but the introduction of Bejeweled 10 years ago launched an entire industry,” explained David Cole, founder and president of DFC Intelligence, the oldest research firm focused entirely on the video game market. “No other casual game comes close to the success of Bejeweled in terms of popularity and influence.  PopCap has been able to keep the franchise strong for 10 years because they have focused on quality and innovation and have not flooded the market with dozens of sequels. I fully expect Bejeweled 3 to not only be a big success in its own right, but also ensure the Bejeweled brand continues to grow in popularity over its next decade on the market.”

Bejeweled 3 will be available on Dec 7th via PopCap’s website, casual game portals and at retail stores.

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