Original Release: Sega, 1989, Master System
A high-effort package from developer Compile that doesn’t hit the jackpot in every aspect, but impresses with nice presentation and several well-done game options (including what is probably the only interesting game of poker on the SMS)
Casino Games (Master System, Sega, 1989)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: coming soon!
Review by: C. M0use
A straightforward casino game package from famed 80s-90s developer Compile, this is a surprisingly ambitious package with very good polish. The graphics and presentation are a great showpiece of the SMS’s technical superiority over the NES. And it uses the Shinobi font for some reason.
You enter Compile Casino with a modest $500 and the goal is to win $1 million in total, for a little ending and credits sequence. To this end you get a collection of five games to mess around with, though only four appear to be for money.
Where the title gets ambitious is in its selection of games, which don’t just settle for the usual lazy implementation of simple stuff like slots and video poker. Well, they kinda do I guess … there’s a half-rate and weirdly automated version of baccarat, and a pretty simple and boring reel slot that has jackpots so small it isn’t worth playing. But there’s also a nice-looking blackjack game, proper table poker with a few different opponents that have basic personalities and facial tells, and even a pinball game. The pinball doesn’t appear to be for money however, not out of place as it was once not at all uncommon for casinos to have arcades for the kids, but the physics are kinda floaty and sludgy and it isn’t really worth playing considering you can’t win anything at it.
Your bet maximums increase as you win more and more money, and the optimal path through the game really seems to be playing poker against the chumps to grind up a good bankroll then switching to big bets on blackjack to get over the $1 mil finish line quickly. There ends up only being like three games worth playing, but it has elbow grease and personality you rarely see in casino titles and is worth a look just for that.
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