Original Release: Cinemaware / 2004 / PS2, Xbox
One of Cinemaware’s last titles was this odd dabble into casino gaming, unfortunately it isn’t nearly as pioneering and experimental as their 1980s/90s titles
High Rollers Casino (PS2, Cinemaware, 2004)
Where to Buy: Amazon
How to Emulate: PlayStation 2 Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
The most notable thing about this package of casino games is that it has the Cinemaware name attached to it, the company that pioneered cinematic computer games in the 1980s. However, by the time this game was released Cinemaware had changed ownership and wasn’t releasing much but modernized remakes of its classics. I think this was the last game it released before the name changed hands yet again to a company called eGames, which has only used it for sporadic remake releases over the years.
The early 00s Cinemaware ownership don’t seem to have been entirely bad sorts, as they released disk images of the original software lineup as freeware for preservation purposes. But there isn’t much good to say about this casino games collection. It’s competent enough, save for a somewhat annoying and unintuitive interface for placing bets. The biggest strength is that it gives you a reasonable approximation of a small casino to wander around in, though there’s almost nothing to do besides the games.
It does have a solid collection of games, with some oddballs like Sic Bo and a passel of exotic blackjack variants like Spanish 21 and Double Exposure that other casino collections often don’t bother with. And there are some themed slots based on classic Cinemaware titles such as Defender of the Crown and King of Chicago.
The game is also a bit more objective-focused than usual in that the goal is to win as many tournaments in a row as possible; you can freely choose pretty much anything but slots or video poker for a tournament, which adds other AI players to the mix. The tournaments do add a bit of strategy and variety to the usual games, as your goal is to keep your bankroll higher than the opponents by the end. Unfortunately, tournaments are also usually trivial to win as the other players play like drunk dopes (seemingly choosing their bets at random). There are also quite a few varieties of poker though the computer is none too impressive there either, and in spite of the inclusion of character faces at the table there really isn’t anything in the way of reading them to gain an advantage.
As you meet your tournament-winning objectives you gradually collect various prizes, such as a golf set and a sports car. These just sit in your hotel room as a small icon, however, with seemingly nothing to do with them except sell them at the casino cage for more cash in a pinch. It would have been nice to at least like view a car model or get a cute animation of your character taking it for a spin.
Hardly any game magazines bothered to review this at the time it came out, and the small handful that did really took a dump on it. I didn’t feel it was that bad, but it did fall into the usual casino game of trap of not differentiating itself enough from all the other games (though it did at least have a few very small attractions). It’s about as competent as any of them though, save the somewhat irritating bet-placing controls. I’m not sure if this is a glitch in the original game or an emulation issue, but cashing out of a slot machine sets off a maximum controller rumble that never quits – be sure to turn rumble off if you’re going to play this one in PCSX2!
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