Original Release: Virgin, 1993, Genesis
Other Releases: SNES / Game Gear (1993)
A basic casino games package that doesn’t play terribly well.
Caesar’s Palace (Genesis, Virgin, 1993)
Where to Buy: Amazon
How to Emulate: coming soon!
Review by: C. M0use
In the 16-bit incarnation of Caesar’s Palace, you now play as some office schlub with bad posture who has decided to pop around after work and blow $1500 of his money for some reason. Possible problem gambler. Anyway, this means that you now have an animated sprite that you move around the casino floor, instead of dragging an arrow around a totally static picture … I guess it’s technically an improvement, but obviously not enough to gain the game another point in the ratings.
The main thing that dragged the 8-bit version down still rears its head here … games having generally slow interfaces, with a lot of unnecessary dragging and clicking. The one game that’s improved here is poker, which had the worst interface of the bunch on the NES. It’s still only the most basic video draw poker here, though – no tables, dealer, or other players.
Unfortunately, blackjack has gone straight to shit in this version. They’ve put it at a table in this one and added the presence of a dealer … but for some reason they communicate entirely through weird hand gestures, and the buttons are all confusing and bizarre. I assume you’re either playing against this guy, or this game takes place in the dystopia of Manhunter.
Whatever the case may be, the other pointless games are here and are pretty much the same. Only addition is keno. Lol, who wants to play Keno.
Videos
Super Caesar’s Palace (SNES, Virgin, 1993)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: SNES Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
The sequel to the 8-bit Caesars Palace puts you in the shoes of Office Joe, ready to blow … his $2000 paycheck that is.
This is pretty much the same as the Genesis port, though I think this has a slightly larger selection of games and the interface definitely seemed a little smoother and faster.
Not that it helps all that much – you get a good amount of games in total, but they’re all very rudimentary. Seems to be only one type of slot and video poker, just different denominations ranging from $1 to $100 (at least until you unlock the “high roller” areas, no idea offhand what the criteria for that is though). Keno and horse racing just have you fill out a simple ticket, then they play out in the background (on a timer) with no graphics or interactivity of any kind. Strangely, the scratchers you can buy at the ATM end up being the most fun of the options.
On that subject, the SNES version adds random NPCs that appear around the casino floor between games. They have conversations with branching forks, but most seem to go nowhere … very rarely one has a “hot tip” for you, but the only thing I ever saw them tip you off to is that one particular scratcher has the highest RTP in the house.
So maybe this should have been “Out of State Lotto Palace” instead? Anyway, it’s drab and just too basic, any random freemium casino game off an app store these days would be much more entertaining.
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Videos