Word Solitaire Game: I Played Solitaire Links With Panda Paws
A panda, an octopus and a dog that almost ended up at the burger stand. Polarzinho's honest (okay, slightly biased) review.
By Polarzinho ·
Hi, I'm Polarzinho, the panda mascot of Polar Games, and yes, I'm about to review one of our own games. Take my enthusiasm with a grain of bamboo. Solitaire Links is a word solitaire game. Instead of hearts and spades, every card shows a word or a little picture, and you sort them into categories: apple goes with fruits, dog goes with pets, fork goes with the kitchen. Sounds easy. Then the category card you need turns out to be the very last card in the deck.
I played the tutorial, levels 2, 3 and 4 of the first world and the October 18 daily challenge, all in my browser with nothing to download. I won every table, three of them with three stars, but the tutorial humbled me in one very specific way. Here's how to play, what I saw and the tips I wish I'd read first.
I played in English, so the cards in my screenshots say Fruits, Pets and Hot dog. The settings let you switch to Portuguese or Spanish with one tap.
What is Solitaire Links? A word association game with cards
Picture classic solitaire: columns of cards, some face down, a deck to draw from and spots at the top where finished cards go. Now swap the suits for ideas. There are no aces, no kings, no counting down from ten. Everything runs on word association.
Along the top sit empty spots with a little crown. Only a gold category card can go into one. It carries a name, like Fruits, and a counter, like 0/3. Every word from that family you bring to it adds one. Fill the counter and the category clears off with confetti, freeing the crown for the next one.
Below are the columns. Cards from the same category stack there in any order and move as one. An empty column takes any card. The deck sits top right: tap it and a card flips over. It's a solitaire word puzzle that rewards vocabulary more than card memory.
The twist: every move counts
Level 1 gives you infinite moves. After that, no such luck: level 2 gave me 45, level 3 gave me 64 and level 4 gave me 58. Every action costs one, drawing included (I watched the counter go from 43 to 42 on a single tap).
How to play word solitaire, step by step
The tutorial is level 1 itself. Linky, the octopus host, gives you the one rule that matters: put every word under its gold category card. With three columns and three crowns, he shows one move at a time with a pointing hand. The whole thing in seven steps:
- Drag a gold category card into an empty crown spot at the top.
- Bring the words from that category to it. The counter ticks up with each card: 1/3, 2/3, 3/3.
- In the columns, stack words from the same category. Order doesn't matter: Cat on Dog works, Dog on Cat works too.
- To move a whole stack, grab the bottom card of the stack, the one you only see as a thin strip with its name.
- Out of moves on the table? Tap the deck to flip a card.
- An empty column accepts any card, gold ones included.
- Clear every category in the level before your moves run out.
PolarzinhoThree columns, three words and an octopus explaining things slowly. I nodded like I already knew. I did not.
Then come the boosters. The Joker is a purple card that fits on any column and takes any card on top. Hint shows a good move and Undo takes back your last one. I started with 3 Hints, 3 Undos and 2 Jokers, plus a Restart button.
PolarzinhoI was ninety percent sure that was a burger. It was. But a careful panda checks before spending a move.
My play diary: from the tutorial to level 4
Level 1: the day I fought a dog
Everything was lovely until the stack step. Linky asked me to take Dog and Cat together to Pets. I dragged. Nothing. Dragged again. Nothing. About twenty tries, with the confidence of someone with huge paws and zero shame. I kept grabbing Cat, which sits on top, and the tutorial wanted the whole stack. The moment I grabbed the thin strip of Dog peeking out above it, both cards went together.
PolarzinhoTwenty tries. Twenty. Linky didn't even blink. In my defense, one of my paws is the size of the whole card.
Then Rabbit closed Pets, Butterfly had nowhere to go and the tutorial had me play the Joker. I finished the rest on my own with Bee, the Insects card and Ladybug. The screen said Level complete! with +50 coins and a +20 Perfect! No help used bonus. A no-help bonus in a tutorial. We take our wins where we find them.
Level 2: a bakery with no owner
Here the game let go of my hand: four columns, four categories and 45 moves. Donut and Candy showed up right away and I stacked them with no dessert card in sight. Pudding and Ice cream joined the same column, a little bakery window waiting for its owner.
Meanwhile Furniture came out of the deck and I sent Shelf, Wardrobe and Desk up in one go. Golden rays, a giant Nice! and the combo hit FEVER ×6. That's the cover shot.
And the dessert card? It was the last card in the deck. The literal last one. When Desserts finally appeared I moved it to a crown, and right after that the whole sweets column was off the table.
Level 3: a truck, a fork and a garage band
Level 3 brought 64 moves, five categories and a wave of picture cards: a truck, a scooter, a fork. Truck and scooter went to Vehicles, the fork waited for Kitchen, and in one column Drums, Violin and Flute rehearsed like a garage band until Instruments showed up.
I finished with 26 moves to spare. The win screen gave me three stars and showed the math: +50 for the level, Moves left ×26 worth +52 and another +20 for Perfect. That's +122 coins.
PolarzinhoLook at those three stars. I'm framing this and hanging it on my bamboo.
Level 4: a gift from Linky
Level 4 opened with Linky handing me a free Joker for when I get stuck. I didn't need it. With 58 moves I lined up Cow, Sheep and a horse picture for the farm, built the kitchen with Kettle, Fork, Knife and a pan, and finished with 24 moves left. On the map, levels 2, 3 and 4 now show three stars.
The daily challenge and everything else on the menu
Daily challenge
The challenge opens a monthly calendar with a trophy counter. Mine read 0/31 for October 2026. I tapped Today and got a meatier table: 76 moves, six categories, four columns and 15 cards in the deck.
It was the most fun table of the whole session. A burger, a taco and Hot dog sat stacked in one column forever, because the Fast food card just wouldn't show up. Meanwhile I closed Sports, School and Colors, sent the whole farm up in one move and the combo climbed to FEVER ×13. Final tally: Daily challenge +160, Moves left ×27 +54 and the +20 Perfect bonus, for +234 coins.
Daily gift, map and settings
When I opened the game, the Daily gift popped up: a seven-day streak from 50 coins up to 300 coins plus a Joker. The first world's map, Velvet Lounge, is a velvet jazz room with a piano, a saxophone and candles, and level 9 shows up as a red dot. The game's page mentions twelve worlds and 90 categories; I only explored the first. Settings include large text, calm mode and the three languages.
Word association game tips I learned the hard way
1. Stack before the gold card shows up
You don't need the category on top to start organizing. On level 2 I gathered the sweets before Desserts appeared; in the daily, the burger, the taco and Hot dog waited together for Fast food. When the gold card lands, the whole stack goes up in one move.
2. Favor moves that flip cards
Shuffling a card between columns only pays off if it uncovers something. Face-down cards are hidden information, and every time I prioritized uncovering them, categories showed up sooner.
3. The deck costs moves too
Drawing feels free, but every tap on the deck spends a move. Before you tap, check the columns for anything useful. I ended level 3 with 26 moves left and the daily with 27, and every single one turned into coins on the final screen.
4. Save the Joker for a locked table
In the tutorial, Butterfly had no home and the Joker fixed it, since it fits on any column and takes any card. I finished levels 2, 3, 4 and the daily without spending a booster, so the Joker Linky gave me is still in my pocket, like emergency bamboo.
Who Solitaire Links is for, plus my tiny complaints
If you like solitaire, word searches or category party games, you'll feel at home. The words are everyday stuff, so it works for kids who can already read, and switching languages turns into a sneaky vocabulary lesson. Each table I played took just a few minutes.
Now the complaints, because an honest panda complains. Moving a stack takes aim: you grab the bottom card by its thin visible strip, and with big paws that cost me. Some cards are picture-only and not always obvious from a distance; holding them fixes that. And the gold card can be fashionably late, like Desserts at the bottom of the deck. Not a flaw, just the game, but it asks for patience.
I didn't try the Shop or Linky's Closet, and I stopped at level 4 of the first world, so I can't tell you how tough it gets later.
Quick questions about this solitaire word puzzle
How does word solitaire work?
You group words by category. A gold card opens the category in a crown spot at the top, and the matching words go on it until the counter is full.
Do I need to download anything?
No. Solitaire Links runs in your browser, on desktop and on mobile.
Can I play in other languages?
Yes. Settings offer English, Português and Español, and the words on the cards change with it.
Is there a daily challenge?
Yes. A monthly calendar with a new table every day and a trophy counter.
Solitaire Links pros and cons
Ready to link some words?
My session scorecard: tutorial done, levels 2, 3 and 4 with three stars and the October 18 daily challenge won with no help. Open Solitaire Links right here on Polar Games, play a table with nothing to download, and tell me if the Dog and Hot dog trap got you too.