How do you make Solitaire compelling and rewarding? If you’re making it for someone like me, the answer is “add a bunch of Disney stuff.” SuperPlay’s aptly named Disney Solitaire launched last week, and it’s already topping the mobile charts with more than a million daily players. Having binged it myself over the past few days, it’s easy to see why. Simple yet absorbing puzzles and a constant stream of nostalgia-bait rewards are the perfect recipe to keep Disney Adults like myself hooked.
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I’m loving it more than I expected, and the more I play, the more interesting it gets. I’d like to recommend it to fellow Disney fans, and I can almost vouch for it, but I can’t just ignore its dark patterns and predatory monetization. This isn’t anything new for mobile games (or even Disney mobile games for that matter), but does put a black mark on an otherwise stellar mobile game.
Disney And Cards? Where Have I Heard That One Before
If you’re thinking of that old Windows 95 version of Solitaire where the cards bounce around the screen every time you win, forget about it. Disney Solitaire is much closer to something like 2048 or Threes. Each level presents a pile of cards arranged in a pattern, with only the top layer of cards face-up. Your goal is to remove every card from the pile one at a time by matching it to the top card of your deck, either one number up or one number down. If you can remove every card before your deck runs out, you win.
Long combos earn bonus points, which come in the form of coins that fly across the screen into Tinker Bell’s treasure chest.
It’s simple, but new mechanics are frequently introduced to keep it interesting. Some levels have picture frames covering part of the pile, and picture pieces buried beneath specific cards. Revealing the pieces will attach them to the frame, revealing the picture of a Disney character and freeing up the pile of cards underneath. Another level type has all the cards spread out on a rolled-up magic carpet that you’ll slowly unroll as you remove cards. There’s a good amount of strategy in how you tackle these different puzzle types, and each one is different.
The best hook Disney Solitaire has to offer is its progression system. Each level you complete will reward you with stars that you’ll use to build iconic Disney Scenes. In the Frozen scene, you’ll start with Elsa in her ice palace, and over time you’ll add Olaf, a chandelier, a staircase, and a statue of Marshmallow. The scenes are lively and animated, with bouncy renditions of classic Disney songs.
Just like the puzzles, the progression system gets more evolved the more you play. While constructing each scene, you’re also earning materials to complete a variety of other, smaller tasks. Sometimes you’re collecting Honey for Pooh as he ascends a tree, other times you’re participating in a race with Lightning McQueen. Eventually, you’ll start collecting stickers to fill up a Disney sticker book. That’s about the time I got fully sucked in.
Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, that’s also about the time the pressure to spend money started getting more intense.
Aggressive Monetization Tactics And Dark Patterns Are A Big Problem In Disney Solitaire
The elements of Disney Solitaire’s microtransactions range from innocent to downright nefarious. Every time you load up the game, you’ll be offered three or four different limited-time deals. Act now and get 400 percent more value! Check out Chip & Dale’s double up offer for twice the coins! Come see Ariel’s Ocean Treasure, the first three for free!
You don’t need a ton of willpower to exit out of these ads and get back to the game, but you do need some. FOMO is real, and hey, we all love a good deal, don’t we? The home screen keeps shortcuts to these offers off to the side, with countdown timers constantly running until these amazing sales expire.
You might be wondering what you would ever need to buy in a Solitaire game, and that’s where the really nasty tricks come into play. Every time you play a level, it costs coins. If you complete a level, you’ll earn a few more coins than what it cost to play, so as long as you’re completing levels, the fee isn’t an issue. The thing is, you almost certainly won’t complete every level on the first try, and even if you do, Disney Solitaire has ways of extracting your hard-earned coins from you anyway.
In theory, every level can be beaten. But in practice, a lot of times you just have to get lucky. Say you pull a nine and there are two tens on the board. Which one do you remove? It’s a coin flip, and if you pick the wrong one, you probably won’t be able to beat the level. Sometimes you can tell right away, because it leads to a long combo. Likewise, you’ll know you made the wrong choice when you flip over the buried cards and there’s nothing useful.
When that happens, you can spend some coins to take back as many moves as you like. This is extremely costly, and equally tempting – especially when you’ve been stuck on the same level for a while. If you do this at all, even conservatively, your coins will drain faster than you’ll ever be able to recuperate. Before long, you’ll be completely drained and unable to play. You’ll have to wait an hour to get some free coins to play again, or spend some money.
There are also Wild cards that will get you out of any jam; these, of course, cost a fortune.
The game is very clever in how it pressures you to spend all your coins. A lot of levels require you to complete long combos to earn bonus cards for your deck. If you have to take a card from your deck, you lose your combo. I find that I’m frequently getting to the last card I need to complete a combo and running out of steam. That’s when the Wild card does a little jiggle, enticing me to spend my coins.
You’ll also lose progress on certain objectives when you fail a level. It’ll ask you if you’re sure you want to give up, because if you do, Pooh bear will fall out of the tree! Don’t give up, Lightning could lose the race! Using the characters I love to guilt me into spending money is a dirty, dirty move.
When you run out of coins, the ads immediately pop up, inviting you to dump some cash into the game and keep the fun train rolling. I’m ashamed to admit, but when I’m this close to finishing a scene, and Pooh Bear is just about to reach the top of that honey tree, I’ve talked myself into buying a bundle or two. I mean, it is a good value. What can I say, I’m weak.
Okay, I’m really weak. I’m $20 into this game, and it’s only been out for three days. I probably can’t keep it on my phone much longer, but every time I launch it and I hear that sweet Disney music play, I can’t help myself. This is weaponized nostalgia, I tell you. If you want to burn all your money on a Disney card game, go buy some packs of Lorcana.
