"Solitaire just the way it's supposed to be, you don't need more than that."

Let's put it this way, if you've never ever played Solitaire, then you've either never used Windows nor picked up a pack of cards. The solitaire as we know it, being ubiquitously present since Windows 3.x up to Windows Vista, is the Klondike Solitaire, or Patience as know in the UK. The origins of solitaire themselves are unknown, but were first archived in English in a card game book in 1870,from Lady Adelaide Cadogan's Illustrated Games of Patience book.

Solitaire is no thrills single-player cards, but without having to go through the hassle of dealing cards yourself. You have 7 decks of cards at the bottom, the first with one card and the seventh with 7 cards, the first card in each deck facing up with the rest hidden. All four suites of cards have to be stacked up from Ace to King on the top-right, while you have a deck of cards which you can draw out three at a time, or one at a time if you choose you minimalist. You can also choose the option of a timed game, a Vegas scoring system or go on the help manual, but these add little to the experience.

Cards can be put on top of each other on the decks at the bottom, but must be in descending order, plus an opposite colour, so blacks can only go on top of reds. The decks of card can be moved collectively, if you want to move a 5, you must take the four, the three, etc. with it also. Kings are the only cards that can be moved onto free spaces on the bottom-decks. To be honest, you would understand it if you actually played the game.

Solitaire presents itself to be a surprisingly, mildly addictive game in some aspects, with the perennial try again factor, when it just occurs to you that there are no more suitable cards appearing from the stack that you can use, some cards are still face down with cards on top of them you can't do anything with, which then means you click new game, try again, and so on. Unfortunately the ‘try again' factor wanes once you finally complete a game, and is possibly few months until you decide to play solitaire again. It still makes for a worthy distraction from an afternoons work in modestly-extreme circumstances, when you're not jamming away on Wikipedia or flash games when the internet is down.

The visuals on Solitaire are basic, a top down 2D playing area, but in fairness you can customise the card backs which is extremely cool if I say so myself. Okay, without getting too carried away it's a neat feature, and there are various designs (on the XP version anyway) which are mostly the wall-paper pictures or default MSN avatars. However, simple is sometimes the best and doesn't mess up the game in any way, too many simplistic games have been remade in 3D and ruined them. The audio is practically non-existant, but then again hardly matters.

Solitaire is fun game to play in certain cases, and saves all the effort of dealing the cards yourself. The next time you're bored of World of Warcraft, Counter-Strike, Unreal or C&C, Solitaire is a welcoming last resort to fill in that hour of boredom. While the fun factor does wane once you finally completed it, it's free (except of course, the price of your Windows software), and plays the game just as it's supposed to be, no thrills, no hassle, pure Solitaire, just the way you like it. All I'm guessing is that you're about to play it now. 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 04/04/07