Original Release: Electrobrain, 1992, Game Boy
An interesting little casino title that adds the twist of trying to take down Mafiosos in the 1920s
High Stakes Gambling (Game Boy, Electrobrain, 1992)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: coming soon!
Review by: C. M0use
An interesting little gambling title from prolific developer Sculptured Software that looks more like a computer game than the console fare they usually made for Acclaim. You’re given five casino games to play in total, though if you want draw poker you’ll have to play all the way through the game’s “story mode” to get to it for some reason, and craps is only available in the “practice” mode.
The main point of interest is the “Competitive Mode,” which spins a basic story of some kind of federal agent (that’s you) attempting to bust Mafia bosses somehow by beating them at gambling. The legal particulars of how that works are never really expanded on, but it’s set in the 1920s-ish complete with ragtime piano and big Sam Spade trenchcoats. It also has video poker machines somehow, but that’s another aspect we won’t think about too much.
So practice mode just gives you 100 grand and lets you play whatever you want (save poker), but the story mode starts you off at the blackjack table with a more modest budget and forces you to bust out a mob boss opponent before moving on to slots, then video poker, then table poker. The one cool wrinkle is that you can periodically duck outside to a guy named “Shady” who sells you various cheats from under his trenchcoat; for example, in blackjack you can purchase an ace to swap in or the ability to see the dealer’s hole card. This all actually adds something of a new layer of strategy and head-to-head play to the game, as the computer opponent also has a limited ability to cheat on certain hands and will definitely deploy it.
As far as game rules go, everything is kept very basic. There’s just one type of simple three-reel slot, and one type of video poker (an odd Joker’s Wild variant that looks more favorable than what you’d find in real life).
Because of the limited Game Boy aesthetics and interface it still isn’t great to play, but it does at least bring something novel and somewhat interesting to the usual dry and straightforward casino games package. My biggest complaint is the fairly good draw poker game, arguably the best element, being locked up at the end of the story mode for whatever reason.
Links
Videos