World Championship Poker Review

Game_Name: World Championship Poker
Platform: Nintendo DS
Developer: Crave
Publisher: Crave
Genre: Card Games
ESRB Rating: E
GamePlay Rating: 7
Graphics Rating: 7
Replayability Rating: 6

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Crave brings its poker sim into the portable world. World Championship Poker for the Nintendo DS has enormous potential that is unfortunately buried underneath layers and layers of failed presentation. Bring a shovel.

First Impressions

When I first heard that World Championship Poker was being ported to the DS, I was as happy as a clam (I’ve heard they’re very happy). Being a gamer who enjoys all things poker, I was ecstatic at the thought of using the touch screen of the DS to select my cards, bets, etc; all while on the go. My only concern was whether or not World Championship Poker would have enough content to actually keep me occupied, as a man can only play Texas Hold’em for so long. While the game turned out to be a loaded package, that’s just as much its curse as it is its gift.

Games Galore

World Championship Poker offers twelve, count’em twelve, variants of poker. Allow me to run them off for you:

• Double - Flop
• Pineapple
• Baseball
• Omaha Hold’em
• Omaha Hi-Lo
• 7 Card Stud
• 7 Card Hi - Lo
• 5 Card Draw
• Deuces Wild
• Black Jack
• Video Poker
• Texas Hold’em

Well, ok, Black Jack isn’t exactly a poker game, but it’s a classic and it tends to be a breath of fresh air every now and then. Plus, while playing in career mode, you’ll get the opportunity to play darts and air hockey as well. Fortunately, the good folks at Crave have thrown in a tutorial feature that covers all of the card games, which is especially helpful when it comes to the lesser know Baseball and Pineapple variants.

Rundown

When you first start up the game, you have to choices to start playing: Quickplay or Career. Since you can do all the things in Career that you could do in Quickplay, there’s really little reason to play Quickplay. Career is where the meat of the game lies. And boy, what a chunk of meat it is. You start out as a rookie and slowly work your way up the casino ladder to play the big boys. Each casino holds tournaments that allow you to advance to a higher-up casino, as well as regular games just to help you pad your wallet. As you earn more money, you can buy more accessories for your character and alter his appearance, as well as his luck, game face, intimidation, and skill. All of these things, with the exception of appearance, will help improve your game in the long run. Now, the character customization feature is a welcome feature, as it is in most games. However, the fact that you actually walk around each casino and find each table and just the whole “immersive” presentation just feels too tacked on and just becomes too cumbersome. As do the pointless animations that each character goes through every time they make a decision. At least you can turn those off.

Visuals and Audio

The graphics in World Championship Poker are pretty spiffy for a simple poker game. Each character looks nice and detailed, as well as the environments you play in. The audio is nice too, which each casino having catchy background music and nice ambience, as well as each character having a few sound bytes.

Multi-player

World Championship Poker also offers wireless multiplayer, which in many ways is the games crowning achievement. As good as the CPU is, nothing compares to throwing down with a bunch of your buddies. The multiplayer itself is nothing special, but it's multiplayer poker, and that's all that matters. It's also single-cart, meaning only one person has to have a copy of the game. Added bonus.

Wrap-Up

With the exception of the redundant character animations and the annoyance of having to navigate through the casino to find what you want to play, World Championship Poker is pretty solid experience. The CPU is good enough to give you a challenge and the variety of different games keeps it from getting too boring. If nothing else, it’ll allow you to brush up on your poker skills before hitting the real thing. [[[Just Fun Games - Nintendo DS]]]

First Impressions

When I first heard that World Championship Poker was being ported to the DS, I was as happy as a clam (I’ve heard they’re very happy). Being a gamer who enjoys all things poker, I was ecstatic at the thought of using the touch screen of the DS to select my cards, bets, etc; all while on the go. My only concern was whether or not World Championship Poker would have enough content to actually keep me occupied, as a man can only play Texas Hold’em for so long. While the game turned out to be a loaded package, that’s just as much its curse as it is its gift.

Games Galore

World Championship Poker offers twelve, count’em twelve, variants of poker. Allow me to run them off for you:

• Double - Flop
• Pineapple
• Baseball
• Omaha Hold’em
• Omaha Hi-Lo
• 7 Card Stud
• 7 Card Hi - Lo
• 5 Card Draw
• Deuces Wild
• Black Jack
• Video Poker
• Texas Hold’em

Well, ok, Black Jack isn’t exactly a poker game, but it’s a classic and it tends to be a breath of fresh air every now and then. Plus, while playing in career mode, you’ll get the opportunity to play darts and air hockey as well. Fortunately, the good folks at Crave have thrown in a tutorial feature that covers all of the card games, which is especially helpful when it comes to the lesser know Baseball and Pineapple variants.

Rundown

When you first start up the game, you have to choices to start playing: Quickplay or Career. Since you can do all the things in Career that you could do in Quickplay, there’s really little reason to play Quickplay. Career is where the meat of the game lies. And boy, what a chunk of meat it is. You start out as a rookie and slowly work your way up the casino ladder to play the big boys. Each casino holds tournaments that allow you to advance to a higher-up casino, as well as regular games just to help you pad your wallet. As you earn more money, you can buy more accessories for your character and alter his appearance, as well as his luck, game face, intimidation, and skill. All of these things, with the exception of appearance, will help improve your game in the long run. Now, the character customization feature is a welcome feature, as it is in most games. However, the fact that you actually walk around each casino and find each table and just the whole “immersive” presentation just feels too tacked on and just becomes too cumbersome. As do the pointless animations that each character goes through every time they make a decision. At least you can turn those off.

Visuals and Audio

The graphics in World Championship Poker are pretty spiffy for a simple poker game. Each character looks nice and detailed, as well as the environments you play in. The audio is nice too, which each casino having catchy background music and nice ambience, as well as each character having a few sound bytes.

Multi-player

World Championship Poker also offers wireless multiplayer, which in many ways is the games crowning achievement. As good as the CPU is, nothing compares to throwing down with a bunch of your buddies. The multiplayer itself is nothing special, but it's multiplayer poker, and that's all that matters. It's also single-cart, meaning only one person has to have a copy of the game. Added bonus.

Wrap-Up

With the exception of the redundant character animations and the annoyance of having to navigate through the casino to find what you want to play, World Championship Poker is pretty solid experience. The CPU is good enough to give you a challenge and the variety of different games keeps it from getting too boring. If nothing else, it’ll allow you to brush up on your poker skills before hitting the real thing.