Solitaire games (and their many variants) are a fairly common game to add to your cell phone. Most of them tend to be pretty straight-forward. I have found a game that blows away all Tri-Peaks games I've ever played.
The Tri-Peaks style of solitaire forms forming a 3-peak pyramid with the playing cards. You have a draw pile, and the goal is to remove all cards from the period by selecting cards that are one value higher or lower than the top card on the discard pile. The catch is that you can only remove cards that are not covered up.
Fairway Solitaire by Big Fish takes that concept and runs with it … far! I have never seen so many different card formations! They seem virtually limitless within this game. And in the latest update, they have added DAILY courses! These also have challenges that earn trophies, which unlock even more bonus courses.
To add to the depth of this game, they also add them "Hazard" cards, like sand traps, water traps, and the rough. These cards all have to be removed in a specific way. The levels are organized as "Courses" with a certain number of holes in each course. Each hole has a "Par" value of cards you can leave behind, and to pass a course you have to score par or under.
As you play, you earn coins, which unlock additional courses as well as upgrades that help you remove cards or otherwise boost your ability to earn coins and clear each level. Coins and other bonuses can be purchased though In-App Purchase, but I have unlocked everything in the shop with game coins and am not even close to finished with the main content, so the game looks well balanced.
One final aspect of the game I'll mention in the large file size. Yes, it is unusually large for a solitaire game. But this is Big Fish- no game is complete without cutscenes. In this case, they tell the story of an angry gopher who is determined to ruin your good time on the course. Oh, and did I mention that you have sports commentators that talk about your gameplay?
As you can see, the features of this game are expansive. This is no simple solitaire game, but a full-featured experience with dozens of hours of content. Like many Big Fish games, this is a free trial download, so you have no reason to check it out. But be warned- you will quickly decide to pay the $ 0.99 ($ 2.99 for HD) to continue this wonderful experience.
I give it 5 perturbed gophers out of 5.
Achievements – 40
Points – 920
Fairway Solitaire Achievements