Bejeweled (mobile)

Bejeweled is one of the most influential puzzle games ever, and its 2004 mobile version was released by Jamdat, then one of the leading studios specializing in games for Java and Symbian. The match-3 principle - swapping neighboring gems to form a row of at least three matching stones - proved to be an ideal format for a small display: simple rules, a clear grid, and a round that can be finished in a few minutes while waiting for a tram or standing in line at a counter.

Controls worked via a cursor moved with the numeric keypad, which the player used to pick a pair of gems to swap, or via touch controls on models that offered it, which were only slowly arriving on the market at the time. This very lack of demand on hardware helped the match-3 genre spread from computers to millions of phones of the era and kick off a wave of similar games that still form one of the strongest categories of mobile gaming today. Bejeweled also offered a timed mode that raised the pace and tension compared to playing freely without time pressure.

The game was sold as a paid download through carrier stores, unlike today's free-to-play clones of the genre funded by ads and in-app purchases - anyone who wanted to play had to pay for the title upfront. The original mobile edition for feature phones is officially unavailable today, since the platforms for J2ME and Symbian are gone and the game can only be found in archives.

Why play it: A key stop for anyone curious how the match-3 puzzle made its way from computers into your pocket, and why it became one of the most enduring mobile genres.