Original Release: D3 Publisher, 2000, PlayStation
Casino card games, specifically, but with a couple of “shedding” games you’ll never see in a betting house
Card Games (PS1, D3 Publisher, 2000)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: coming soon!
Review by: C. M0use
The unassuming title hides what is actually a pretty OK little casino game. Decent little collection of games, decent loungey jazz soundtrack. Nothing amazing, but if I picked this up for $10 or less off the bargain bin back in the day I wouldn’t have been upset at the purchase.
You get four typical casino games: draw poker, seven card stud, blackjack and baccarat. The rotation is rounded out with two non-casino “shedding” games that are nevertheless played for money: President and Speed. Neither one is explained at all in-game, but you may have encountered President before (and it’s pretty easy to infer how it works if you haven’t). Speed is also unexplained, less commonly known and way more annoying … mostly because the controls are different from every other game and never explained (let alone the rules).
Aside from just accumulating your stack for the thrill of it, you can also spend your winnings on various items that decorate your little one-screen Resident Evil camera angle room (you live in the casino apparently). There’s not much meat to that, but hey, it’s nice to have aspirations in life. Winnings can also buy you higher limits for the various games and songs from the soundtrack to play in your room (yet another case of a D3 Simple game having better music than you’d expect).
I wouldn’t go out the way to play this unless you really enjoy basic card games set to casino lounge tunes, but it’s got its little enjoyable qualities if it happens to come into your life unbidden somehow. The games play smoothly, it has a nice little relaxed casino aesthetic and soundtrack, and they didn’t bother translating the win/loss quotes very well or re-dubbing the voice clips at all so you get some amusing Engrish at the tables (“FOLDO”).
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