When you think about it, Solitaire is probably the most played game in the world, between the globally popular physical version and its even more popular virtual counterpart. A quick search on, say, the Google Play Store will tell you …
When you think about it, Solitaire is probably the most played game in the world, between the globally popular physical version and its even more popular virtual counterpart.
A quick search on, say, the Google Play Store will tell you that countless developers have tried their luck with this evergreen casual gaming format, but none of them has what Solitaired has.
Developed by two education-minded entrepreneurs called Darshan Somashekar and Neal Taparia, Solitaired is a compendious solitaire collection with an educational mission.
And when we say compendious, we really mean it. This app, released last October, boasts more than 500 different solitaire variants. All the classics are here, including Klondike, Freecell, Spider, Pyramid, Golf, and others.
The twist is that these countless playing cards play host to a diverse array of illuminating educational titbits. Somashekar and Taparia have partnered up with institutions like MIT, Encyclopedia, and the Jeopardy-winning brainiacs at Who2 to create a variety of custom decks.
One recent deck celebrated 52 leading suffragists to mark the centenary of universal suffrage. Another included images of astronauts and pilots to celebrate the return of US astronauts to space, while still another featured 52 famous inventors.
The most recent deck, meanwhile, gave a platform to 52 notable leaders of the civil rights movement.
Of course, not every deck is educational. Solitaired has also joined forces with real life playing card designers to bring the most popular designs and patterns into the virtual realm. You’ll find the famous Parrot deck in here, as well as the Jones Playing Card decks.
We’ve spent a lot of time talking about Solitaired’s educational and design credentials, so let us just repeat that it contains a whopping 500 solitaire variants to play, as well as a completable Game of the Day, stats on every aspect of the game, and some nifty animations.
It’s easy to feel jaded towards a game as ubiquitous as solitaire, but Solitaired brings the format back to life in grand style with an awesome level of polish and an innovative, edifying, and entertaining line in educational nuggets.
Download it for free on Google Play, Amazon, and the Microsoft Store.
