Title: Up Down Solitaire

Platform: iPhone

Website: www.updownsolitaire.com

Developer: Evan Gilbert

Price: $0.99

There are few things which are better than the original. To this day, nothing beats the original recipe of Coca-Cola made with proper cane sugar rather than corn fructose syrup. Yet sometimes, we are pleasantly surprised and the new ‘flavor’ of the original is not only refreshing but even better than the original. With that said, it is my personal opinion that Up Down Solitaire is better than any other type of solitaire out there. And it doesn’t just stop there, it’s amazingly well executed for the iPhone.

Up Down Solitaire as a stand alone game design of solitaire does surprisingly well. It adds upon the simplicity of Solitaire a blanket of complexity which is both comforting and a welcoming change. Rather than using one deck, you use two decks, and rather than just working on one foundation of cards, you’re working on two – each foundation respectively require the player to go up the deck or down the deck. Additionally, you have cards in the tableau which are drawn out into the draw pile. This might sound all very confusing, and in a way, it is. However, it’s only confusing for about 1 minute because while it might sound all that complicated once you do it for the first time, the game just flows and it’s beautiful.

The flow of the game is actually so brilliantly well done, that you never realize how much time you’re spending playing the game. Also, every game feels as if it’s a game you can win. Only until the very last few deals of the deck is when you realize whether you have what it takes to win the current round of Up Down Solitaire.

As for how the game is handled on the iPhone, nothing bad can be said about Up Down. To move a card you simply touch the card you’d like to move and then it’s destination. Ta-da! Your card is now in it’s appropriate destination. Care to see what cards are within a tableau deck? Hold down the top most card of that tableau pile, slide your finger to the slide, and there you go. You can see the cards within that deck fanned out behind the top most card. It really is as simple and intuitive as it sounds.

In addition to great game design and intuitive iPhone controls Up Down Solitaire also features compelling awards for all you “chevo whores”. Want to brag about how good you are at Up Down? That’s fine developer and designer Evan Gilbert has developed an online community where you can view a player’s statistics and a global leaderboard of Up Down Solitaire players.

All in all, Up Down Solitaire is a great re-imagining of Solitaire for 99 cents which includes great controls, design, and social media extensions. If like most of us you remember the good old days when you played solitaire while eating chips and not doing your work at the office this game is a must buy! Not only will it allow you to play one of the games which have wasted the most amount of time but you will be able to play it on a mobile platform and a version which is even that much more addicting! Exactly what productivity did no need is Solitaire on crack cocaine. Fortunately or unfortunately for the lot of us that is exactly what Up Down Solitaire is. Get ready to go to rehab.