Chances are good that if you’ve ever owned a deck of cards or a computer, you’ve probably played a few hands of Solitaire. More of a time killer than a game, Solitaire is well suited for rainy days or wasting time at work. Solitaire is not so fitting for a video game console. If you’re bored, you probably have a copy of Perfect Dark Zero that hasn’t been touched in months, or perhaps you have some Arcade games and demos awaiting you on your hard drive. If you enjoy Solitaire games more than the average person, you’ll likely be pleased with Soltrio Solitaire, but most gamers will struggle to get their 800 Microsoft Points out of this title.
Variety is the spice of life, and the hallmark of a good Solitaire game. Soltrio, of course, offers the games familiar to most people, Freecell and Klondike, as well as 14 others. Most games are not going to be familiar to everyone, so an in-game description of the rules is easily accessed with one button press. These games are not anything new, and you could simply go to your local library and dig up a book of Solitaire games if you were so inclined, but with Soltrio you don’t have the inconvenience of shuffling the multiple decks some games require. Somehow thrown in the mix is the game Memory (also known as Concentration), in which you turn over cards two at a time, and try to match them. I’ve never seen this as a solo game, so why this was included, I’ll never know. You couldn’t lose this game if you tried.
Defying all logic and challenging the very definition of the word “solitaire”, Soltrio offers a multiplayer Solitaire game for local or Xbox Live play. In all honesty, it’s not too bad. One player occupies the left side of the screen, while your opponent -or teammate for coop play-, occupies the other side. In the middle are common foundation piles that you and your opponent build. Much like the Arcade card game offerings of Uno and Texas Hold ‘Em, this is more of a social game than anything else.
Soltrio offers a sort of career mode, called Voyage. There are a series of stages in which the gamer must win three Solitaire games to pass the stage. Oddly, the games you play are entirely up to you, so there’s not much point in playing Classic mode. If you wanted to play Memory over and over and over again to beat Voyage Mode and get all the unlockables, you could. Beating a stage advances you to the next and rewards you with artwork that can be used to make custom decks of cards.
The graphics are more or less what you would expect in a Solitaire game, not flashy, not awe-inspiring, not distracting. The game adheres to a Renaissance theme and features decent backdrops to match. By playing Voyage mode, the gamer unlocks various artwork for the card backs, including the background, foreground and frame. Your custom decks can be saved and shared. The card faces are customizable in the settings menu, and range from the standard variety, to some more unconventional styles.
