Last year was absolutely stacked with games. This counts for both the AAA and indie space. You’d be remiss then if you missed a wonderful little title by the name of The Solitaire Conspiracy. This FMV game that packs an espionage twist into the Solitaire formula has hit the Nintendo Switch. More than ever, I’m telling you this: If you haven’t played this game yet, you’re missing out and damn well running out of reasons not to.
I reviewed The Solitaire Conspiracy last year on PC and found it to be an amazing experience. It’s the better part of a year later and it’s still a game I can’t help but find myself crawling back to. Choosing to place that on the Switch, allowing for ease of play in bed? I don’t doubt my hours for the game are going to balloon.
The Solitaire Conspiracy features plenty of Solitaire fun to stick your teeth into. At the heart of it is a campaign that slips you into games of Solitaire all within an espionage setting. Where Conspiracy differs from experiences in the classic card genre prior is that the various suits of cards are known as ‘crew.’ Each of these suites colours the decks differently and even feature gorgeous character design on the face cards. The face cards of each crew come with their own ability, whether that’s blowing up a line of cards they’re placed on or sending the next card of the crew type you placed it upon to the main sorted deck.
Plenty can either aid or detract your experience depending on how careful you are and it all but adds to the tense fun. The new Atlantis Project crew, courtesy of the game’s most recent updates is living proof of this. Its water-based team has a dolphin as its King face card, and has the ability to ‘submerge’ each version of the specific card it’s placed on. All the handier for burying those dastardly kings at the bottoms of piles.
In between these sessions of Solitaire you’re also treated to an FMV story as you level up. It’s full of ridiculous and bountiful lore that developer Bithell Games is already quite well known for. What was new to the studio however is these FMV cutscenes. They feature the likes of gaming personalities you’ll undoubtedly be familiar with such as Greg Miller and, more recently, Alanah Pearce. In my review at the time, I was impressed with the cutscenes that have the trope-y quality of FMV classics like Night Trap. Now, the Switch version has all of these campaigns together in one place, from the original campaign to the Merry and rounding it off with the most recent Atlantis Project story.
With touch screen capabilities to oh so satisfyingly move cards to clear up piles, a complete compilation of all of the game’s near year worth of content and the bonus modes, The Solitaire Conspiracy is just begging to be played on the Switch. Whether it’s just a quick session or staying in for longer hauls to see a campaign through, there’s plenty of good, stimulating fun to have.
Whether it’s on Steam or the Nintendo Switch, play The Solitaire Conspiracy. Thank me later.
About the Author
Charlie Kelly
She/Her, They/Them
Charlie loves her video games as much as she loves dumb, charming JRPG protagonists: probably way too much. You can often catch her spending too much time being emotional over LGBT stories in games. She also thinks Yakuza 6 is the best one.
