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There
are lots of Christian Bible memory games on the market. However,
Scripture solitaire stands out as perhaps one of the most enjoyable
ways of familiarizing yourself with short scripture verses.
The
game comes with all the major flavors of solitaire, but here’s the
twist. Instead of the cards being broken down into Ace, King, Queen,
etc. they are broken into a sequence of short phrases that altogether
make up the verse. The "King" card is now the Verse reference
(such as John 3:16) and the "Queen" card is the first
word or two of the verse. The cards follow until you get to the
last word/phrase which takes the place of the Ace. That’s pretty
straight forward
But
it’s Hard!
But
the game, at first, can be somewhat confusing. With hints turned
on (the only way this short term memory challenged Christian could
successfully play the game), the cards can get a little cluttered.
This is made worse by the necessary fact that all those pieces of
scripture are in random order.
My
wife, who normally loves solitaire games, couldn’t get past this
one thing and never played more than a few hands before giving up.
But then she doesn’t play solitaire to memorize scripture, she plays
it to pass away some time and relax from a hard day of work taking
care of our children. I’m not a big solitaire fan, and while I too
had to concentrate pretty hard to play what is usually considered
a "simple game" (Simple here, is a relative term. Some
of the "simple" solitaire games my wife plays make my
head spin), after a few games I was beginning to catch on and enjoy
the game.
That’s
the Point!
I
think the problem here is not that Scripture Solitaire is difficult
to play, it’s unfamiliar and it forces you to concentrate hard on
the scripture phrases and their matches. Of course, that’s the whole
point of the game and why it works well for helping you memorize
scripture. Memorization requires a lot of repetition (at least for
me) and by making me think hard about the phrases in each game,
I got a good workout. By the end of each game I actually felt like
I was significantly more familiar with the scripture verse by the
end than when I started.
However,
every new game started with a new verse. I would like to be able
to play the same verse a bunch of times in a row. First, because
I’m so bad at rote memorization and secondly, because I think that
familiarity with the verse would make playing the game a little
enjoyable.
Add
Your Own Verses
The
game comes with several scripture sets based around various themes
(Salvation, Life of Christ, etc.). It has the capability of letting
you add your own verses by editing a simply text file. The game
comes with a test function so you can check to make sure the verse
you just added is working as intended.
Phrases
can only be so long before they "bleed" of the edge of
the card and that makes it hard to play. Also, you have to fill
out all 13 cards so your verse has to be at least 13 words long
or it won’t work and any verse over 30 words might not fit into
13 cards. However, you aren’t going to run out of scriptures to
memorize and you can always just break longer passages into shorter
sections and make them into multiple verses.
Graphics
and Some Nice Extras
The
graphics of the game are acceptable to good. They are of high quality
but the huge diamond, heart, spade and clubs images on the cards
was something that bothered me. My favorite theme was Ancient of
Days since it looked the least like giant preschool cards. They
have multiple themes to choose from (from cute to dignified) so
chances are you’ll find something acceptable. Inspired Idea also
has some additional downloadable themes on their web site and I
presume it’s possible to create your own themes.
The
game engine worked well and felt smooth and professionally done.
Sometimes, on my computer, the verses and options text was a bit
long (due to some setting on my computer I think) but it was never
a problem. The game was very stable and never crashed. Installation
was easy.
The
CD also comes with few extras. On it is a very good free Bible search
engine (The
Sword Project) and while this is freeware that you can download
from the website, having a copy on a CD ROM is very convenient.
You can use some of the background images from the game for your
computer desktop. There is also some praise music in MP3 format
on the CD (songs you might see sung in your Church by a member).
Conclusions
What
sticks out in my mind is two things. The first is that this is one
of the more innovative ways I’ve seen to memorize scripture. The
second is that it’s not nearly as easy to enjoy as the simple solitaire
games that everyone is familiar with. But if you are wanting to
memorize scripture and you like solitaire, this might be just the
thing for you and you should at least check out their demo.
Eric
Final
Score
Highlights: Smooth
gameplay, innovative way to memorize Scripture, low price.
Lowlights:
Can be a bit confusing and difficult to get used to the way you
have to match scripture phrases.
Hints:
Keep the hints on at first. Try the Life of Christ since the
verses used there are more likely to be familiar. The default of
one verse from each book of the Bible
has some pretty obscure verses sometimes.
Recommendation:
If
you like solitaire games and you want to memorize scripture, this
is worth buying. Otherwise, grab the demo to find out if you'd enjoy
the game.
Age Appropriateness:
Teens
+ (Younger kids can learn how to play it but play the demo first
to see if your child catches on).
Christian
Sense (CS): 4
- Innovative approach to memorizing scripture.
Game Engine
(GE): 3
- Does the job.
Game Play
(GP): 3
- I'll admit here that I am not drawn to solitaire games but of
all the games I've played that teach scripture memorization, this
one is at the top of my list of ones I'd use..
Overall:
3.3
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