Solitaire· Reviews

Hi! Love Solitaire , have picked it up quite a few times over the years and have had a blast each go. This year I had a deal pop up for the subscription and it was 1000% worth it, in my opinion. That’s caused me to play even more! But I have one qualm now.

For an app that prides itself on having been around for over 20 years and having the most downloads, I was shocked to discover there’s no background for Pride month! I know this isn’t a major request, nor something many Straight fans would care to see (and yes, they’ll probably be outraged and upset for no reason as it wouldn’t affect them in any way, but that’s just how Straight, non-ally folks respond to rainbow content in June-only June). But as a queer player, it’s nice to see support from the companies that I spent countless hours supporting and recommending to friends. I’m aware I can upload a background myself. But that’s not the same as something from the developer themselves. I mean, the background for June’s monthly challenges is a soccer field... A rose background was introduced around Valentine’s Day. A small gesture would go a long way. It doesn’t even have to be extravagant! Just a suggestion, that hopefully doesn’t fall on deaf ears. And if so, I’d rather not have to take my business elsewhere, but alas! It’s nice to be supported and recognized just as much as the rest of the world, the rest of the holidays. Thanks! :)

I really want to like this game but what ruins it is the pointless challenges and ridiculous amount of ads. Every time I play a challenge that requires multiple wins in a row the game does everything it can to make sure that it’s impossible to do unless you feel like playing hand after hand for hours at a time. It’s the worse on the last win you need. It never changes I’ll have one more win and the stupid game refuses to give it to me. That to me is just lazy. Mix it up so it’s not so repetitive and you don’t get the same hands so much. I will constantly recognize hands that I have just beat and they pop up a lot. The worst part of this game are the ads. They’re always the same and a lot of them require you to answer questions and until you do you can’t close them. It’s really annoying especially when you’re trying to beat a hand in a rush and one of these stupid ads with questions pops up and takes time away from the hand. It should be very hard to make a this app game frustrating and somehow this game was successful at doing exactly that. I’m gonna try another this app app.

I don’t know what happened or why things changed, but Solitaire has gone down hill in the last few weeks. It is soooo slow and glitchy. It is not as responsive when I click on the deck for a new card or to drag a card to a new spot. It lags and takes an extra 10 seconds. This has sapped so much of the relaxing fun out of Solitaire for me.

I love Solitaire when I started playing on a long cross country flight with no shows/good books downloaded. I quickly became a little obsessed with it and it successfully helped me quit my Twitter habit :) Instead if scrolling Twitter before bed or sitting in carline, I would play a few games of this app. Sadly with the latest update and horrible lag time/glitches, I find the whole thing more annoying than relaxing. It is so frustrating. Please look into why this happens and try to fix the bugs. I also hate the new menu at the bottom with hints and shuffle buttons. Super annoying and unnecessary.

Two months ago I’d have given this 5 stars, but no longer. Please fix it!

I play like three games every night before bed. It’s my way of winding down. But now, instead of just running short, minor ads in between games, there is also a banner that runs at the top while you play. Sometimes they’re animated and distracting. I wish it only had the ads in between games. I really dont like the banner, but I get it if you guys need the money.

Also There is now a shuffle/hint option at the bottom of the screen. These are cool features, but I wish there was a way to hide that bottom bar while I play the game (kind of like the how you make the toolbar hide, when not in use, on Macs or Windows). I find the bubbles on the “hints” and “shuffles” remaining to also be distracting. That’s a symptom of living in this modern era of push notifications. I hate those bubbles with numbers in them and I’m the sort of person to clear them as soon as they present.

Earlier update was a solid 5 stars. These updates make me give it a 4 now.

I do like this game & I don't think there are too many ads. I play 3 card draw and I find it challenging but not impossible to win. However, when I've reached a point in the game where I feel it's not win-able I'd like to be able to get confirmation that there are no more moves. If I use a hint, the game will always send me to the deck if there are still cards there, even if none of them can be used. I don't know if I just don't understand the hints correctly or what but I'm quite sure that I've gotten to the point where there are no more useful moves and the hint seems to indicate that I should keep flipping cards.

I'd also like to be able to listen to my own music while playing but the ads get in the way of that. Like I said, I don't mind the ads, I even opt to watch the extra ads to earn hints & reshuffles even though I rarely use those options (I've accumulated over 2000 of each) but I'd like to hear my own music while the ads run.

Far too many ads than is reasonable for a this app game, which is supposed to be relaxing and an escape from tedium, not something that bombards you with commercial messages that you have to spend your valuable time waiting through and in which you have zero interest. The ads are annoying and interrupt the flow of the game - and whatever slight reverie you might have derived from gameplay. The plethora of ads (between games and the continuous banner ads during games) make me want to either use this game very seldom — or delete this game entirely and find a less ad-infested this app app, which is something I‘ll probably do in the near future. That‘s really too bad because the actual this app part of Solitaire is very nicely done and plays well. Recommended only if your patience for ads is higher than average.

I usually enjoy myself a fun game of this app, but Solitaire made that experience nearly impossible. The “Hint” feature Solitaire provides does nothing if there are no moves left in the game, which it does not inform you, and so you may just waste your time racking up moves before you start a new game. The rate at which I found games unsolvable, even when utilizing the undo button, was astounding. I also had the unfortunate experience running into a somewhat explicit ad depicting content not suitable for all ages, and had to report the ad. Given complaints I have seen about other intrusive ads, it is very clear that there is not an effective pre-screening process for the ads that can be shown on Solitaire, and I am very disappointed that anything like it was able to be shown in a game with a +4 rating. Either change the age rating on this game, or insure your ads are free of scams and depictions of inappropriate content.

I can play the daily challenges and regular games and have a win rate of about 80% within three deck flips. As soon as you enter Vegas mode the game just throws impossible to win matches at you. Doesn’t matter if you’re on amateur, novice, expert or above. Playing the Vegas mode games I find myself winning maybe 5-10% of the time. Very clearly the developers just want you to lose your points so you have to buy some from the store. Yes I understand that you put up your points to play, but when you can go 15-20 games in amateur in a row with never winning and MAYBE breaking even on a round, you can see how crap Vegas mode is. I’ve also made it through a few full games in Vegas mode where there wasn’t a single move to be done. Make your money from the ads, don’t purposefully cheat players out of hard earned points just to make a quick buck.

I’ve had this game for a long time, a few years on a few different devices, and never before have I ever just quit a game due to the sheer obnoxiousness of an ad. It’s a grey bar with a single blinking Mail icon in the center, and if you click it, it takes you to a ridiculous “Congratulations, you’re a winner!” pages. Are you serious? You sold ad space to a pop-up scam? And if you don’t click the ad, the player is forced to see it blinking furiously in the most aggravatingly distraction way possible? This is what you’ve become? Your whole business model is you annoy us or you try to screw us with a scam? No. You wanna screw us? To hell with that. Screw you.

*Edit - So you made an app, and you can’t even regulate what ads you play? Pathetic. I’d give you another chance, if I felt for one second that you were being sincere. Thankfully, I deleted Solitaire right before I left my review. Have fun with your business model of aggravating people until they delete your app as well.

UPDATE: May 2018: upgraded from 2 to 4 stars

Significant improvements since 2017, Most important being reduction in ads impeding play of the game, and improved flow of the actual play.

You no longer have to wait a significant period of time and endure a number of obnoxiously loud ads before playing a new game. The win percentage has also increased, Further reducing the percentage of time waiting for ads as opposed to playing the game.

The features of this ap are better than other this app games are making this a recommendation at this time.

If there is a return to a system that appears tvmanipulated to force you into an artificially high number of ad plays, I will delete this ap and downgrade to 1 star.

2017 REVIEW

ADS: I have found that my percentage of wins is higher using a standard deck of cards, which to me is suspicious, since when you lose you have to endure another ad before playing another game. That is in addition to the banner ads which can be clicked accidentally. Given how short the actual game is, the percentage of time watching ads is unacceptable, making the game more frustration than fun.
TECHNICAL: for the above reasons I have Limited playtime, but I have not had any technical difficulties with Solitaire .

I have been using Solitaire for a long time. I was great. I don’t have a problem with the banner ads (it’s a free game and ads are inevitable), but this Progressive ad has to go.

Unlike banner ads, this Progressive ad is actually on the cards and changes the appearance of the whole app.

This is really annoying and can easily be substituted with a video ad in between rounds or a banner ad.

The Progressive ad is unnecessary considering there are also banner ads playing as well.

Not only is it unnecessarily annoying, it is a stupid ad - have a picture of Flo and a sign saying Progressive is a terrible ad. It doesn’t tell you anything about the product, there is no link to the Progressive website, and no information to hook the customer.

All this is compounded by the way the ad changes the appearance of the game in a negative way that actually turns the consumer off of both Progressive and Solitaire .

**A banner ad or video ad for Progressive would be a much better substitute** because it would actually deliver information relevant to the consumers, it could have a link to the Progressive website (allowing you to actually generate business), and most importantly it delivers this information in a manner that does not effect the playability of Solitaire or effect the appearance.

Please change this. It harms both the playability of Solitaire and Progressive.

I constantly find myself having to reopen Solitaire because it has glitches out in some way. Sometimes the numbers blend into the cards around it, sometimes a card doesn’t reveal properly, sometimes it just freezes. And then, recently, I experienced a new, more frustrating glitch. I had 2 cards in the deck and 2 unrevealed cards. So, I should’ve only been missing 2 cards; the unrevealed ones. However, there were 3 missing cards. I tried everything to see if I was missing something and even sent photos to friends. But there was simply no way to proceed because 1 card was missing and I couldn’t complete the game without it.

So now I’m wondering how many times, when I have to start over, is due to me not making the correct moves and how many times it’s because the game glitched out.

This is a great, balanced version of this app. Sure it has ads, but ads are present in all free games. Instead of whining about not winning, use your head and figure out where you went wrong, problem solve and learn from your mistakes. On a side note (with no disrespect to the devs), I find it baffling that this game is updated as frequently as it is. How many bugs can a game of this app have! Despite the fact that the last ten updates or so were bug fixes, I have never experienced a crash or glitch to date, and I will continue to play and enjoy this great game! Whatever you guys are doing in those updates, keep it up!

I like to play a few games of this app and listen to podcasts or audiobooks before going to sleep, but with this game any audio on my phone stops when the ads in between games start, and the podcast or audiobook audio doesn’t restart when the ad ends. I have to quit the game and navigate back to my podcast or audiobook app to restart. The ads themselves don’t even have audio, they just stop my audio player for no reason. None of my other card or game apps do this. It is particularly annoying because you often lose this solitary game pretty much right away, so I am starting new games every few minutes, which leads to a lot of annoying navigation around my phone to restart my audio and get back to the game over and over again. For this reason I’m deleting Solitaire and picking another this app app.

Well Solitaire Store doesn’t seem to let me make multiple reviews, but there is always another way 😉.

This game is fun. I see reviews on here about not winning, but I think I win more than I loose. At least it feels that way. But the winning feels earned not given. And this is my talking on the phone game.

Also, the ads aren’t as intrusive as on other games. For instance, most games have ads that pop up and you can’t cancel until it finishes, after 30 - 45 seconds btw, but not this game. The ads can be canceled after about 10 sec or less. Another thing is the ads are actually something I’m interested in. I’ve clicked on a few, which I never do on other games.

——- Second Review——-

Zynga contacted me shortly after my review below with a fix which worked well. I uninstalled and reinstalled the game and the bug is gone.

It isn’t often app developers contact me directly even when I give a negative review, so I’m impressed. Thank you Zynga.

——- Original review——

(Now the new game button just plays adds without a new game ever starting.)

I love the game, but it’s constantly glitching. Currently it’s glitching to the point where I can’t even play the game. It gets to 4 seconds into the game and it freezes! When I click the cards nothing happens and the time has stopped. The game freezes completely. I exit and restart Solitaire and the same thing happens all over again. It freezes at 4 seconds.

I love playing this this app app and would like to continue. Please update and fix this issue. Without the glitching I would give the rating a 5 star rating. As other users have complained about ads, I don’t mind the ads because as you get to a certain point, you are able to skip or fast-forward through the ads and quickly return to your game.

To everyone who says the game is rigged: you must not know how to play this app. Go get an old fashioned deck of cards and see how many you can win based on pure chance. My average for 3 card draw was about 25% and I know there were pleanty of games I passed up that better players could have won. The trick to Solitaire is you have to press the undo button when you get stuck and find different orders to play your cards so that different cards can be uncovered.

With the new update, my old problem with being unable to start a new game was fixed, so I changed my rating from 3 to 5 starts so long as the problem doesn't come back.

This has been my favorite app for years, but the aggressive advertisements make it unplayable. One ad up to 10sec is annoying but I can tolerate that when Solitaire is free. But, trying to close multi layered ads that constantly open a website link or Solitaire Store is aggravating! Or there’s ads that pop in play repeatedly in a loop... And the only successful way I’ve found to get them to stop to restart the this app game itself. Makes we want to throw my phone! Finally, I’d had battery issues the last few weeks and after investigating discovered Solitaire was using 60% of my battery time! WHAT?!!
PLEASE go back to reasonable advertising methods or provide an add-free paid App. Otherwise I bet I won’t be the only long time play to leave.

This game is no scam. Sure, it has ads, but what free game doesn’t. Complaining about Solitaire making the ads tricky to close is stupid too. That is a common practice among all apps, and I’m pretty sure it’s not even the apps that design the ads. The game is certainly not rigged, when I first got this I had never played this app before, so I wasn’t able to win for a bit. Still, after a few games I got the hang of it and begun to win some games. Now, I win most of the games that I play. If someone wants to complain about how this game is rigged, I think that they just simply are not good at this game and need to stop complaining so much. It’s just a game after all.

I love this game and app for the most part only problem I had that it frozen on a old game I played even I closed Solitaire after I was done I play when I feel like it I almost downloaded a different one didn’t want to though but it works again and was happy about that before I tried to write this review it closed on me and said it needed an update which was a little weird so I’m not sure if this will be posted or not but this is a good game if you’re bored or if you’re on the toilet for awhile I always been good at this game still am I think I got a game done in 30 seconds before it depends on the cards I’ll get some are hard.

I absolutely love this game. Until I don’t.

Three times now, I’ve played until I’ve earned various decks, completed missions, accumulated hints & shuffles then it stops opening on me. I’ve restarted my phone; tried for days to open Solitaire , only gotten a blank screen. At that point I have no other choice but to delete Solitaire and start at square on again. I know it’s about to happen when opening Solitaire begins to get slower & slower, and my dread begins sinking in. This glitch really needs to be fixed. Either that or stop making all of a user’s data disappear when they no longer can get Solitaire to function when they’ve made a month or so of progress. Otherwise, I’d give it all 5 stars.

My advice to new users is to never do in-app purchases because you’ll be throwing your money down the toilet when Solitaire stops running on you.