Mystic Journey: Tri Peaks Solitaire

Sometimes it’s easy to keep players engaged with simple mechanics, but other times the repetition can also get on their nerves if the gameplay is not fun enough. Even old ideas can be made to appear exciting again with the right attitude, but it takes some work to get the desired results. On the other hand, there’s the pay-to-play syndrome to worry about nowadays, which can really ruin the mood.

Mystic Journey: Tri Peaks Solitaire is a puzzle game with Solitaire elements, in which your goal is to stack cards on top of each other in ascending or descending order. Although the idea itself is incredibly simple, it actually takes a lot of effort to solve the levels after a while. The game works against you in order to force you to pay for more lives, which is obviously annoying.

There’s a simple fantasy story running in the background as well, although it’s far from interesting. In fact, the plot stays in the background most of the time and you can ignore it entirely, but at least there’s something to distract you every now and again. Every level features a different card layout, but that’s not too important when the cards you draw from the deck are random anyway.

The most annoying thing about Mystic Journey: Tri Peaks Solitaire is the fact that you require lives in order to keep playing, and you lose lives if you do not manage to clear the level by the time you reach the end of the deck. It’s impossible to keep playing without acquiring more lives, and this obviously costs money. The problem rests with the fact that from a certain point the luck factor is working against you, so it’s pretty much impossible to advance without paying.

Since it only takes a couple of minutes to lose a round and thus one of your lives, your playthroughs are usually very short until you have to pay or wait another day to try again. The graphics are not too bad in terms of textures or backgrounds, but then again they matter very little in this kind of experience. Hence, the colorful scenery is not of much help when you have to deal with annoying mechanics.

In the end, the fact that the game works so hard against you in order to force you to pay makes Mystic Journey: Tri Peaks Solitaire very difficult to enjoy or appreciate. Hence, it could use a new approach in terms of level difficulty, otherwise people are not going to be pleased at all.