iPod Games Review Roundup (page 3 of 8)
- September 15, 2006 19:25 PM PST
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Texas Hold'em
What would a portable games launch be without Texas Hold'em? As if there was any double, it is one of the 9 launch games, and unlike most Hold'em console games, it is actually quite decent.
I won't go over the rules of the game because everyone and their mother is currently on the Texas Hold'em bandwagon, but will go over the interface and controls, which are really what differentiates Hold'em game A from Hold'em game B.
Developed by Apple, this version is all no-limit, so it's very straightforward. Games are played in tournament style, and there are seven tournaments to play. The first tourney is single table, but the number of tables increases and difficulty increases accordingly. Tables consist of six players (yourself included) and it is all in elimination style.
The interface is simple, but looks surprisingly good. The main screen is a top down view of flop and each of the six players' cards. During betting, the camera shift to head-on views with each player as they bet, check, or fold, and they'll perform little animations, to boot. But, you can skip past virtually any part of the hand (not including when the action is on you, of course), which can make play go super fast. The Select button is used for most actions, and the scroll wheel increases or decreases bet amount.
The A.I. plays rather tight especially in early tournaments, to the point where you're better off pushing premium hands and making big bets. The second time I played the game, I won the first tournament, but it took almost a half hour and I had to lean on the runner-up for about 15 minutes before I got knocked him out.
Play is accompanied by some hokey contrary instrumental music, and again, is nice and crisp. You can save and quite at any time during a tournament, but interestingly enough, there's not battery meter or clock display in this game.
This is a good portable version of Hold'em and Apple does a nice job with making a good pick-up-and-play style interface, but without multiplayer features, I really only recommend it to beginners who like to play with no consequences at all.
Fun Factor 3.25
