Of all the time-wasting tools we have used to chip away a few of the day’s hours, Solitaire is the granddaddy. Now that old friend is bursting forth into the 21st century, as Microsoft made it available on both iOS and Android for the first time.
Although there are certainly many fans of Solitaire who have been playing it since its first digital inception, it is old enough now that there are drinkers in the world who have not. In fact, this year marks the 26th year since it was available on a Windows platform. Now it’s going mobile and that opens it up for a much wider audience.
Reimagined as an app, Microsoft’s Solitaire comes with a number of different modes. If you never understood how to play Spider Solitaire, now is your chance. It comes along with the classic Klondike mode, Freecell, Tripeaks and Pyramid too, all with their own unique rulesets.
To keep you coming back — other than to avoid whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing — Microsoft has also implemented daily challenges, so you can play specific puzzles which challenge you to figure out how to complete the puzzle of the layered cards. New ones will be released every day, with varied difficulty levels.
If you manage to complete some hard ones too, you can even brag about it to your friends, since there is Xbox Live Support too. That way you can earn achievements and prove that you really did win without cycling through the deck more than once.
This being a free mobile game, there are some advertisements that you are forced to deal with, but if you like playing enough, you can put down $2 and Microsoft will strip them out and give you double coin rewards by becoming a premium member.
Of course, there are other mobile Solitaire games available and have been for some time — it is a timeless classic after all.
