Download Spider Solitaire from the web
The classic Spider Solitaire game that wasted so many hours of my life has been absent form recent Windows builds. Fortunately, the Windows 10 App Store has come to the rescue, offering numerous apps to fill the gap – and that is exactly what Spider Solitaire Free provides.
Online Solitaire
First up, a little myth busting, Spider Solitaire Free is not completely free. You can play it without paying, but there is a $2.49 Deluxe upgrade if you don’t want ads. Not necessary, but reasonable if you enjoy the free version and play a lot.
The basics are the same as the Windows classic. Your goal is (theoretically) simple: complete runs of card suits. Once a suit is complete, it is neatly placed at the bottom of the screen. Depending on the difficulty you pick, you must handle one, two, or four suits – and despite how easy it sounds, it gets difficult quickly.
The rules of Spider Solitaire Free have you starting with ten stacks of cards. Four of these stacks have six cards with the bottom one turned face up, while the other six contain five with one face up. You also get 50 cards to deal out in 10s (one on to each stack) whenever you get stuck.
Tap and drag
You must order these cards from King to Ace. It is possible to place a card of any suit on top of another as long as it is one number lower (so 8s on 9s, 3s on 4s). However, you cannot move piles of cards with mixed suits. This can make the game tricky as you juggle the various cards, trying to order them and make space.
Depending on the device you are playing on, you can either click or tap and drag cards around the table to place them. This works well, but unfortunately the display does not keep things as simple. Overly large cards regularly make it hard to see cards in the stack, this makes planning moves an unnecessary struggle.
Add to this more ads that are necessary, and Spider Solitaire Free feels like it is trying to sabotage itself.
Should be better
If you need a game of Spider Solitaire then Spider Solitaire Free should fill the gap. But it is a flawed version of great solitaire game, and that shouldn’t happen in 2016.
