Bejeweled Blitz Live may very well be the most intense and frustrating sixty seconds of any gamer's life. PopCap Games, one of the industry leaders in casual play and match-3 gem titles, decided it was time to raise your blood pressure by stripping the "casual" away from the wholesome game of Bejeweled. Blitz Live reduces gameplay to sixty seconds, making this match-3 gem game a wild and crazy ride. Although the gameplay is simple enough at first and nothing new to the world of Bejeweled, it always manages to deliver fast and furious gameplay that is nonstop fun. And, it's damn addictive too. You may be reading this and thinking to yourself, "Hey, it's just a match-3 gem game, it can't be that wild." That's what I said. Then an hour or so later after taking my trash talking online to battle seasoned Bejeweled masters, I realized that my heart just wasn't ready for the competitive pounding of online battle.

Blitz Live is available for 800 Microsoft points on Xbox Live Arcade. The game has two modes: Classic Bejeweled and Twist. Most gamers will gravitate towards Classic mode. In this mode you can't physically change the board. Gamers use the X, Y, A and B buttons to swap adjacent jewels and match three or more gems together. If no match is made, then the gems go back to their original position. The way gems are swapped is relatively intuitive and matches the button positions of the standard Xbox 360 controller. The X-button will swap the highlighted gem with the jewel to the left of it, while the B-Button will swap out the gem with the jewel to its right. The Y-Button will swap out the gem directly above the highlighted gem, while the A-button will make the swap with the gem below.

Bejeweled Twist presents gamers with the more challenging mode, but it's also the more flexible mode once you get used to it. Instead of swapping a gem temporarily, gamers can constantly manipulate the board as they desire. However, you can only rotate groups of four gems clockwise or counterclockwise. This does add a layer of difficulty, but if you can think a few steps ahead it will give you unparalleled control over the board to earn larger multiplier bonuses.

Each mode has its own set of multipliers. You can also earn special gems by matching 4 to 6 gems in a row or by matching three gems vertically and three gems horizontally of the same color. There are also speed boosts.

Quick reaction time and multiplier knowledge is key to winning an online Battle. Against the average Live player, you can probably get away with matching gems at random. Most of the time you can score between 10,000 to 35,000 points just by matching as quickly as possible. However, this won't work against seasoned Bejeweled Twist players. Once or twice I went up against an opponent who would score anywhere from 300,000 to 500,000 points each time on average. In head-to-head battles, your opponent's screen comes up right next to yours in a split screen. Although you'll be focused on your own side of the screen, you will always hear the explosions happening in your opponents view. It creates a psychological battle because you can get distracted in the first ten seconds. Pay too close attention to your opponent and you will waste precious seconds from scoring in your own board. Multipliers earned by your opponent will also send explosive ripples across your screen, further distracting you. Before you know it, the robotic and annoying announcer voice will say "30 seconds." When you're behind by 50,000 points or more you can easily panic and give up. That's what makes the rush in Blitz live so intense. I only wish I could shut off the announcer's voice without shutting off the music. The woman has a sadistic sound in her voice when she's counting down the final seconds to your defeat. Gamers can also battle locally.

If you want to practice for Live Battles, but without the threat of head-to-head play, you can play single player games or join a Party. In Party Live mode, gamers only see their own screen. However, on the left side of the screen you will see the other seven players in the party represented as tokens on a pseudo-racetrack. It adds a layer of competition to the game, without the pain of constantly seeing your competitors score. Unfortunately, the voice over actually calls it training mode, which subconsciously makes it a little less enjoyable.

Bejeweled Blitz Live is an excellent competitive match-3 multiplayer experience. I only wish there were more badges to earn like in Bejeweled 3. For 800 points, I would have liked to see more additional content.

Final Score: A