Review of Spider + App by Brainium Studios

Lately, I’ve become a bit nostalgic for some aspects of what computers were like in the early days of the internet. Remember when PCs used to come with one, simple, solitaire game installed? I spent countless hours playing with the virtual cards on my computer even though I had a perfectly good deck of real cards that I could have been using. There was something relaxing about playing solitaire on my computer, and it was nice to not have to put away the cards when I was finished.

Today, many of the “time-waster” games have gotten rather complex. I’ve grown tired of the games that require you to get online, log into Facebook, and hope that your friends will send you enough “virtual stuff” to complete the quest, build something, or advance in the game. It started to feel very tedious.

Recently, I asked my friends to suggest an easy, “time-waster” game that did not require me to log into Facebook every time I wanted to play it. The game that got the most mentions was Spider Solitaire. I now use a Mac, and a brief search of the App Store revealed a game called Spider + that was created by Brainium Studios.

The app costs $1.99 on the Mac App Store. The version for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad requires iOS 4.0 or later, and is free. The Android version cost $0.99. You can find a quick link to whichever version works best for you through the Brainium Studios website.

I am really enjoying this app! The cards make a flicking sound as they are placed. If you move a group of cards from one row to another, it makes a soft, “shh” sound. The game is very relaxing! You can customize the design that appears on the back of the cards, and the background the cards sit on, by choosing from a few different designs, or by selecting an image from your computer.

The game keeps track of how long it took you to win in the last game you played, and your best (and fastest) time completing the game. It also shows you how many moves it took for to you to complete the last game, what score you earned in that game, and a total of all your scores. The cards shuffle quickly, and I haven’t had any glitches or bugs at all. I highly recommend this game to those of you who long for the days when you could easily spend a couple of minutes playing with virtual cards.