Jewel City

Jewel City puts you as Jasmin, a jewel thief who sets out with her trusted friend Brad, a helicopter pilot, to steal back precious jewels from a group of nasty criminals who stole them in the first place. Her travels will take her to a variety of different locales, like the US, Brazil, Africa, and Europe, as she dodges the police and claims the jewels back for their rightful owners.

The gameplay in Jewel City is standard action puzzler fare. You have to run around the screen, collecting all of the jewels in each area through the use of platforms and trampolines. You have to dodge the police who are constantly running around the map trying to capture you. If they get too close, you can use bombs in order to stun them temporarily and make your escape. As the levels grow in difficulty and complexity, you’ll have to face more police officers. Each location also has a boss that you must face and defeat in order to move onto the next area.

Jewel City is essentially two games rolled into one. There is the main game, and there is the bonus game, which is a version of Bejeweled. The bonus game is a pretty fun puzzle game, but anyone who has played Bejeweled will know exactly what to expect. The puzzle game can be accessed in the main game mode in between certain stages, or through the main menu.

Graphically, Jewel City looks pretty good, with brightly colored sprites and environments. The characters are decently animated, but unfortunately, quite small, especially on a mobile phone screen. The game has some music and sparse sound effects here and there, but nothing too outstanding.

Jewel City is a pretty fun puzzler that can be quite difficult at higher levels. Fortunately, it is quite easy to pick up and play, yet can be quite addictive and fun.

Gameplay: 8.0
Jewel City’s controls are very easy to pick up and the gameplay concept is not hard to understand, but the game can be quite challenging and addictive as you go.

Graphics: 7.0
Graphically, the game sports a nice colorful look that complements its cartoony style quite well, but the sprites are a bit small and difficult to make out.

Sound: 7.0
Sparse sound effects and some intro music, but not much else.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 8.0
A fun action puzzler, the story elements are quite light (but hey, what do you expect from a mobile game?)

Overall: 8.0
Jewel City is a solid action-puzzler that presents a nice challenge and a bonus Bejeweled mini-game. It’s easy to learn yet difficult to master, which are the two things that make a mobile game fun.