Sometimes the whizz-bang of R-Type, the addictiveness of Angry Birds and so many other time-consuming games that inhabit my iPhone are just too much bother, and I just want to play something quick and easy.  It’s then that I return to solitaire.

Now, solitaire is well catered for inside the App Store and in terms of gameplay, the less tinkering with the established rules the better as this is one game that doesn’t need jazzing up or ‘remixing’.  That’s not to say a little visual flair is unwelcome, and this is exactly the approach Awesome Solitaire (iTunes link) has taken.

The cards are laid out on a star field background, with individual stars controlled by the iPhone 4′s gyroscope, and you get a Retina Display-tuned sparkle every time you turn over a new card.  The animation is smooth and the movement from your deck to the table is fluid, plus it’s always clear what the suit and number of the card is, despite their small size.

Aside from dragging the cards into place, you can double tap them to place them on top of their respective ace, plus there is a suitably congratulatory completion animation and the chance to auto-finish if you can’t be bothered to go through the motions.

Wolter Group, the developers of Awesome Soitaire, seem to have found just the right balance between a proper game of Klondike solitaire and a style which befits the modern, capable device it inhabits.  The randomization is excellent, it doesn’t seem to have any annoying bugs such as all four of one type of card being found together in one turned-down pile, nor does it offer various incomprehensible alternative versions.  You’ve got the option to turn one or three cards over and if you’re a real purist, you can turn off the ‘awesome’ too.  That’s it, you can just get on and play!

It’s not entirely perfect though, as the inability to play in landscape mode is an unfortunate omission, plus it’s absolutely, completely silent.  There’s nothing, not a whoosh, a swish or a ringing bell when you win – it’s like they took the vacuum of space setting and decided to make it as realistic as possible.  Now I don’t want them to fill it with inappropriate music, nor do I really feel the need for any sound effects, but I realize others may, so provided it can all be turned off, a few audio bells and whistles to accompany the visual bells and whistles wouldn’t go amiss.

Awesome Solitaire shuns the traditional green baize backgrounds and drearily patterned card backs found on some other solitaire games, and adds some flashy but sensible visual garnish to this classic game.  For the $0.99/£0.59 asking price, it’s good value too, but for it to be truly worthy of its ‘awesome’ name, it needs landscape support and some optional sound too.

Overall: 4/5.