Typically when I download an Xbox Live Arcade game, I know right away whether or not it’s something that I’ll play for three minutes and delete, or if it’s something that’ll sit on my hard drive awaiting me to plunk down however many Microsoft Points it costs to own it. Soltrio Solitaire is one of those games I expected to delete right away. I mean, it’s just solitaire. Albeit, 18 different kinds of solitaire, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is something I’ve played enough of as I waste time on my computer. So I played a game of regular old Solitaire (which is apparently called Klondike – who knew?) and enjoyed it, and decided to try another type. Then I noticed that I was playing over and over and over. I quickly snatched up the full version so that I could attempt to climb the leaderboards and try out some of the game’s other features.

After a ridiculous number of games played (including time spent willingly playing this over the Halo 3 beta), I can safely say that if you’re a fan of card games, you should pick up Soltrio. Casual fans with short attention spans or graphic whores need look elsewhere – this is clearly aimed and successfully works as the type of game that sucks in anyone that can appreciate the depth of a card game.

The 18 different game types figure is slightly misleading, as it counts Freecell Easy and Freecell as two different types; ditto for Klondike Deal 3 and Easy. Still, you’re left with a good number of different ways to play. Each comes along with very simple and concise instructions that’ll have you understanding any particular game type in under a minute – going in, I only knew how to play maybe a handful of them. Some are subtle changes; Easthaven is essentially traditional Klondike, except cards are piled on top of your face-up cards as opposed to dealing one or three cards. As minor as it is, it completely changes the way you need to approach the game, so while the concept might not sound exciting, it does provide a significantly different experience.

The game plays and handles well, as it should – it would have taken a monumental effort to cause the controls for solitaire to be complicated. You can easily hop into any game type you wish; the game doesn’t force you to play some to unlock others (thank you!).

Multiplayer can be done via system link or over Live, but I found it to be somewhat tedious to play. While it’s nice to see another game take advantage of the Vision camera during multiplayer play, I found playing online to simply be tedious; you don’t really want to play solitaire multiplayer. Card games of this nature strike me as something that should be slow-paced and relaxing. Playing online? Not so much. And the notion that someone would actually play by linking up two 360s is absurd – if you’re going to do that, drop everything immediately, slap yourself, and then purchase a deck of cards

Technically speaking, there’s nothing exciting to see here. The music gets pretty repetitive; I ended up turning the volume down to listen to my own music or podcasts while I played. Visually, it’s just solitaire – the varying backgrounds are a nice addition and are certainly better than staring at solid green, Windows-style, but they’re nothing stunning. Ultimately, you shouldn’t expect anything from the graphics or sound here, although there is a nice little effect when you move a stack of cards from one pile to another.

At 800 Microsoft Points, Soltrio Solitaire is not an impulse buy. $10 is a lot to ask of the average person to play solitaire, especially when they can just hop onto their computer and play for free. But anyone that can really appreciate the nuances of different versions of the classic card game and likes kicking back and playing with a controller instead of a mouse should definitely give this game a look. If nothing else, it’ll be a good trial Arcade game to have sitting on your 360 for those times when you’re just sitting around and looking for something to kill time.

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