Solitaire
published 2026-02-25 | tags: #games #backlog
Through a bunch of coincidental timings I found myself feeling very lonely in January. I was traveling for work where I wasn't super friendly with my co-workers, a few friends were moving on and I would see them far less, my other friends were busy or focusing on other relationships, you know how it goes.
So somewhat ironically at first, I downloaded the Microsoft Solitaire app for Android and got really into it. I'm not any good at Solitaire (I'm not good at most videogames, so that's not much of a statement), but I do enjoy the different types and how they train your brain to play the game out a few steps. Klondike, Spider, FreeCell, Pyramid, TriPeaks, they all force you to approach the problem of "stack cards good" in different ways.
Then I remembered Zachtronics has a Solitaire Collection and I bought it full price because I was pretty sure this was going to be even better than boring old Solitaire.
And it was!
- Sawayama Solitaire (Last Call BBS), which is basically just even harder Klondike (I'm not sure why this is rated the easiest, it kicks my ass every time)
- Sigmar's Garden (Opus Magnum) is the most unique not involving cards at all!
- Proletariat's Patience (Exa Punks) is fair and I like that the gameplay is a metaphor!
- Cribbage Solitaire (Mobius Front '83) is the most inventive of the standard card deck games and is so difficult. It doesn't help that I'm also bad at Cribbage.
- Cluj Solitaire (Molek Syntez) is my favorite for it's minimalism in visuals and audio design.
- Kabufuda Solitaire (Eliza) really forces me to look at patterns and pay closer attention than I usually do in a card game.
- Shenzhen solitaire (Shenzhen I/O) is OK but for some reason hasn't grabbed me.
- Fortune's Foundation scares me. It is brutally difficult.
I appreciate the genre of Solitaire a lot more now and will probably continue to invest time into a previously overlooked genre.