2 September 2015
Imagine combining the best parts of solitaire, poker, and Threes!. That’s exactly what Zach Gage did with Sage Solitaire. The great animations, the simple design, and the clever game mechanics make this one of the best games for iOS right now. The pricing structure is fair as well. You can play as many times as you want with occasional ads or you can pay $2.99 for an ad free version that gives you the additional game modes of playing with two decks or an additional scoring method.
Just like Threes!, Sage Solitaire can be played mindlessly throughout the day as you complete hands or you can take time, put thought into it, and strategize to get a new high score. Because of the game mechanics, there is quite a bit of strategy at play.
When you start the game it breaks down a quick tutorial for you but essentially, if you know poker hands you will be okay. You are given a 3 x 3 grid of cards laid out similarly to solitaire where the top left pile will have the most cards under it and the bottom right will have the least. As you make hands, you gain points. The actual values of the cards are irrelevant. The tricky part comes from having to play from at least two different rows to make a hand. If the bottom two rows are depleted, no more hands can be played, even if the top three cards could have given you something.
Describing this game doesn’t do it justice. Download it and give it a try yourself.
Source: Max Temkin