Klondike Forever - 1.3.1

Klondike Forever is an extremely attractive (almost beautiful) and well-designed game. What's most surprising is that this is freeware, not shareware. This game also gives you a taste of what their shareware product, "Solitaire Forever" would be like (an almost endless supply of solitaire games). Yes, I plan on purchasing Solitaire Forever very soon.

The board and card layout is nothing less than outstanding. Large, natural and easy to read card faces (the same as the Bicycle decks that you'd buy -- familiar and drawn to perfection). I can't tell you how many solitaire games I've trashed just because the card faces are silly, or busy, or they try to be unique and fancy, only to be difficult to read. Another big plus are the sound effects. They seem spot on (most never get this quite right). I play with all of the wiz-bang animated effects turned off (far too busy and distracting for my tastes). However, I do like the way the cards flip. Not only does it perform this smoothly, it is also entertaining to watch.

The game layout (looks like the cards are placed on a piece of glass that is leaned against a green background) is shown at a slight angle and perspective (similar to the view one gets from actually playing a real game of solitaire). This enhances the entire look and feel. I immediately fell in love with the looks and felt right at home. And as one adds cards to a growing pile, the pile adjusts smoothly and nicely to keep all the cards on the game (glass) board. For a very fluid and quick game of Solitaire (on my G4 running Tiger, no less), this one just can't be beat. The designers knew what they were doing and what was important (once one turns off the additional effects -- of course, many may like these effects).

I do have a minor complaint or two. While the preferences are beautifully designed as well, it is accessed by one button (the only button icon on the playing screen) that takes you to a separate preference screen. I would have liked to have seen a few basic control icons at the game level (although there are adjustments one can make in the menu bar). More significantly, while it does play very smoothly, it does so without anything else activating or working in the background. It seems to suck up all the computing cycles.

One additional note: I've looked and tried out dozens of solitaire games (yeah, all the big ones), and the only other one I've found that compares to Klondike and / or Solitaire Forever is the beautiful shareware game, "Hardwood Solitaire III". It has soothing, beautiful background music that you just won't find anywhere else (that enhances an already gorgeous background and visual effects). Both games are must haves for me.