Original Release: Altron, unreleased, Game Boy Color
A casino-adventure title with cute Super Gem Fighter-esque graphics that looks like it might have been very interesting if it had been finished.
Grand Casino (GBC, Altron, unreleased)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: coming soon!
Review by: C. M0use
Grand Casino was unreleased, but looked to be shaping up to be an interesting little casino-adventure title with a cute art style. Something of an extension of older titles with adventure elements and goals, like the Casino Kid games or King of Casino.
The leaked ROM was apparently intended for Japan only and thus unreadable to my gaijin eyes, but American Tex seems to be on a global quest to conquer casino cities, beginning with Macau. Chun Li explains the ropes to the foreigner, which is apparently that you have to win enough at one gambling house to be given access to the next. Each one seems to have just one particular game type, like slots or video poker, but can have different varieties (the first slots house has “holiday” themes for its games).
So at the slots place you have to win 1000 bucks, which ends up being not that difficult if you max bet the “high roller” machine (a whopping five credits) as these things are QUITE a bit more generous than real life. That prompts Chun Li to give you a card that opens up a video poker place. The rules change a bit here, for the sake of your sanity; VP winnings now become “credits” so you can more easily keep track of what you’ve won, as this is inherently more grindy than the slots with their big and generous jackpots.
I actually bothered to grind out 1000 credits at VP while watching wrestling one evening, and … you get a new card from the bunny girl who saves your game, but it doesn’t seem to grant access to the remaining “Lisboa” casino or anything else new.
This never made it farther than being shown as a demo at Nintendo Space World 2000, so I’m not sure if that’s as far as the leaked ROM lets you get or if there’s just grinding requirements beyond my willingness to play. Would really appreciate it if someone who can read Moon Runes can glean anything from the game’s text.
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