A huge shoutout to all those Microsoft Spider Solitaire babies, now adults, who used to rush to the family PC to pass the time playing Spider Solitaire, Minesweeper, and Scrabble!. If you miss those days, I believe it is only right to share a dedicated website where you can still play a variety of similar games, but better!
Solitaire.org focuses on solitaire games, but they also have other game collections in a variety of categories that can be found on their website:
Start the journey with a good ol’ Classic Solitaire
When you first visit their website, you’ll be greeted with a classic solitaire game, which may appear boring at first, but once you start playing a little, you’ll quickly become addicted! If you enjoy a good challenge, this game is perfect for you.
Playing the game immediately transports you back in time. I remembered spending my free time at home on the good old PC, frantically trying to finish the deck of cards before I ran out of time. The fact that Solitaire.org has strategically placed this game first on their website impresses me; it certainly hooks you up!
I spent about 20 minutes playing the game because it truly challenges you when you realize that matching a card from K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, A with no mixed suits is super easy, but actually making it in the game makes you think otherwise!
Apart from this starter game, it’s surprising that a site like Solitaire.org has gathered all of your childhood favorites in one place! Solitaires, cards and Mahjong games, and even Match 3 games like the popular Zuma Ball are all here!
Back to the old BUT newer Spider Solitaire
Before trying anything else, I had to play a game that brought back a childhood memory for me. I liked how spider solitaire was a simple and easy to play game that was also challenging and frustrating, which may or may not have contributed to my adulting issues, haha! With a better interface than the version I’m familiar with, Solitaire.org’s Spider Solitaire is a dream. I was immediately challenged, but I took it in stride as I chose the one suit game for a test.
I was very confident at first, until I realized that the fate of the deck was not in my hands. I was caught off guard and dropped four games before finally winning! A complete disaster! If there’s one piece of advice, I can give to those who want to try this game on the website, it’s to scan the cards thoroughly before requesting a new set of reserve cards—since once the cards are laid, there’s no going back!
Find it all at the Hidden Object Category!
After spending so much time playing solitaire games, I decided to cool off with one of my favourite adolescent games: hidden object games! Finding hidden objects faster than anyone else had always been a good challenge for me.
You’ll be timed to find all of these objects before the game ends in the Hidden Object – Kitchen game, so you’ll undoubtedly become invested in it. I realized in the middle of the game that I may have chosen the wrong Hidden Object game setting because all of the objects in these scenes were nearly the same color!
Finding the objects took me longer than I expected, but my mind was sufficiently challenged that I completed it before the game ended. The interface itself lured me to complete it because I remembered how poor the graphics were in the hidden object games I used to play online.
Get your mine swept with the Minesweepers!
I decided to push it with the adrenaline from the solitaire and hidden object categories and found another crowd favourite, minesweepers!
I remembered how much I used to despise this game because the logic was so completely irrational! The interface was better and clearer for me when I played Classic Minesweeper on the Solitaire.org site. The logic was still challenging, so after one game, I switched to another to complete the game day!
Exercise your mind with Word Search
Word search has always been my favourite game, whether it’s in the form of physical word search books or computer games! So, to finish up my game time, I chose Word Search from Solitaire.org’s Word category. But, as you might expect, it wasn’t a relaxing game.
The word search on Solitaire.org has a time limit and what appears to be an endless list of words that are difficult to find! Who’d have guessed that a word search game could be so engaging?
I’m glad to see these games revived in better interfaces and even more challenging strategies to play, as these are the games that have helped me grow into the person I am now!
Did I mention that you can also request games through the website? Well, I actually requested that dress-up and cooking games be added to the site so that I could relive the joy of dressing up characters and challenge myself once more by placing food orders in cooking games!
With so many more games to try, I’ll definitely bookmark Solitaire.org to play whenever I need to relax and exercise my mind— although I can’t say that this site is a stress reliever because every game I’ve played here has given me a greater challenge than the last, haha!
Take a trip down memory lane and start slaying those brains! Play these games at Solitaire.org to sharpen your mind for free!
