“It’s like going to a fun brain gym!” My 12- year old son says about Solitaire.org

“It’s like going to a fun brain gym!” Says my 12-year old son after playing a few games on this website called Solitaire.org, and I totally agree. It’s a lot different from the usual fun-centred games site we know. This one trains you to focus and think much more than usual, and it can get really fun if you’re into that kind of stuff – like me! Or even if it’s not something you’re accustomed to, I still think it’s a great site to visit to relax and flex some brain muscles.

My eldest son insisted on playing Solitaire because he says the site is primarily a Solitaire site and he’s right! There’s a lot of versions of the popular card game in there, there’s Klondlike, Freecell, Spider, Pyramid and Tripeaks and Golf, which according to the site are the most common versions, and there’s a whole list of more versions I’m not familiar with yet; but there are also other games for people who don’t play too many card games, and many of these bring back lots of good memories for me!

But first, Solitaire!

I only played with the basic version Solitaire  because it’s been so long since I last played it.

I used to play it a lot on Windows where it was one of the handful of games that were already included in the preset. I would play it a lot whenever I needed a bit more time to set my mood before I write and I remember playing it before I sleep or when I’m waiting for late night phone calls from friends.

Anyway, I honestly forgot how to play it so I had to ask my husband, Jay, to help me out. But my son, Pablo, just watched the video provided in the site to guide first-timers and was able to get on it just like that.

My experience was quite pleasant, though to be honest, I haven’t won yet, haha! But here’s how my best deck looks like. Don’t laugh, okay?

The goal of Solitaire is to create for stacks in ascending order, Ace to the King, and by shape and colour – Hearts, Spades, Diamonds and Clover.

In order to achieve that, you’ll have to stack the cards in descending order, alternating colours, rearranging when possible and necessary, in order to get to the cards at the bottom so you can place them accordingly. But it takes a lot of thinking and rearranging to accomplish that.

I’m a little bad at it, but I remember winning a few hands back then, so I’m pretty sure I’ll get my groove back soon. I just need a little practice, that’s all.

Let me share with you some of the other games I enjoyed:

Zuma Ball

I played a lot of Zuma Ball when I was a younger mom. It was a game my husband installed in our old Compaq laptop. I remember it to be lots of fun and addicting, too, haha! I’d play it on my free time, or when I breastfed my babies, and I even let my 5-year old play it, too. Although I think I was more hooked on the game than he was.

Zuma ball’s interface is a bit different from the Zuma I was accustomed to, but it plays the same. The goal is to keep the balls away from the end by shooting the same ball to make groups of 3 balls that would pop off. The only difference that I noticed is that here, when you pop off the balls in the middle of the moving line, the ones in front don’t move back making this one more challenging because you have to make sure you pop the ones in front first.

Letter Scramble

At first, I thought that in Letter Scramble, I had to fill out all the blanks with tiles, but realised later on that I can submit any word that I can come up using the tiles I’m provided with!

Those who know me well enough know how much I love word games. In fact, I’m not one to download games on my phone because I mainly use it for business, but just a few months ago, I couldn’t resist downloading a few word games which I play when I’ve nowhere to go but the balcony as I wait for my kids’ dance classes to be over.

I can see myself playing this game a lot more in the future. I really enjoyed it and it shows – I got to level 3, yay!

Cookie Monster

Cookie Monster is a Pac Man-inspired game wherein Cookie Monster eats the pellets while colourful ghosts chase him around a maze. Whenever Cookie Monster eats a bigger pellet, these ghosts turn into cookies and he can eat them and get points!

There are also some fruits that float around from time to time that earn you points, too, if Cookie Monster eats them.

It’s a game of strategy and speed which I’m terrible at, but I enjoyed playing it, nonetheless. It’s one of those characters (Cookie Monster) and games in my childhood (Pac Man) that I can easily enjoy with my children.

Palace Hotel (Hidden Objects game)

I share my enjoyment for the hidden objects game with my 12-year old, Lukas. He and Judah also played Candy House, but he seemed to like finding the hidden objects on the screen with me.

There were a bunch of hidden objects games to choose from and I chose Palace Hotel.

I like this one because it trains your eyes to focus and to watch out for details because some objects look very similar. If you happen to click the wrong object, you lose time off your clock to find all the given objects.

Lukas also played with Palace Hotel on his own using his mobile and he said that he had a hard time finding some of the objects, but I gather it’s easier to use a laptop to play any of the hidden objects games simply because the monitor is bigger and some of them were positioned in really odd locations.

Daily Bridges

So this one’s not really me.

Judah, who is 10 years old, was the only one who went for a Logic Puzzle game. He chose Daily Bridges where you connect nodes to other nodes horizontally or vertically, with straight lines.

Here’s my feeble attempt, ahahaha! I didn’t know what I was doing, obviously.

I can honestly say I did not understand the objective of this game just yet, nor do I know how it ends, but my 10-year old says he almost got to the finish line, so he must have understood what he was doing.

Anyway, here’s a video of some of the games we played on Solitaire.org:

Solitaire.org has the nostalgic feels but that isn’t what makes it a great game site. Like my 12-year old said, it’s like a fun brain gym where you get to use your brain cells a lot.

Cookie Monster kept me on my toes, but the word games, as they always had, won me over.

No matter how difficult some of the levels may get, they are mostly quite entertaining. I certainly enjoyed playing the games I chose, it challenges you to sit up and figure out how to win. If anything, your brain does not go idle on this one, who knew brain games can be so much fun?