Ultimate Card Games

"Just how "Ultimate" is it?"

For those that have been waiting, the review is in, and here is Ultimate Card Games.

If you have considered paying $30 for this game, that might not be a bad idea, but you may want to first be forewarned about some problems with it.

Gameplay - There are several games to play on this one cartridge. To list some of them you have five-card draw, blackjack, video poker, hearts, euchre, spades, cribbage, canasta, gin rummy, crazy 8s, go fish, bridge, a few others and 10+ solitaire games, so there are plenty of games to choose from, but I think you know where I'm going with this paragraph. There are several problems with some of the games. The most persistent one from game to game is the AI, whether it is too hard or pathetically stupid (Which happens a lot in the partnership games, specifically the AI partner you have). It seems that in cribbage your opponent never misses the opportunity to score a point, in canasta all computers will make some of the stupidest moves known to man (discarding a card that they could've played to go out), and euchre has the best example of terrible AI decisions. Another problem with most of the games is the fact that the people at Telegames stated that there will be plenty of customization in the rules, which is sad, because that was a lie. Only a select few games have more than 2 or 3 rule changes, most have none at all. One rule that was left out was the AI setting, so you're stuck playing with stupid people or unbeatable cribbage masters.

*Deserving it's own note is five-card draw. This is the WORST five-card draw I have ever played. The betting system is screwed up terribly (you never recieve the amount you are supposed to), the AI makes the same moves over and over ($425 when they have two pair for example), and it just sucks. If you are buying this game for the poker, DON'T.

On a positive note, there is no AI in the solitaire games, which means if you like those, you're in for a great time. These are a great addition to the game, but you could just as easily buy a deck of cards and play them yourself.

You also get the ability to create up to 4 characters, and save every single game for each person, which is too much of a good thing. Don't have time to finish that game of canasta? Save it and play it later. How about that long game of spades? Save it too. Every person can save one copy of each game, which is close to if not 100 or more saved games!

Back to the note of creating characters. If you've ever played a Hoyle game, you know that there is a deep face customizer that allows you to make your avatar look like just about any human imaginable. This game does a pretty good job with face creation, but the faces look blurred and don't show up as well as everything else in the game does, which ruins the purpose of creating it.

For the most part, all games play fast, the AI doesn't take too long to make a move, and it really isn't as bad as I made it seem above. There are a few occasional times when you'll say, "What? That is too allowed," yet it won't let you make the move. Bridge especially suffers from this, because no matter who makes the bid (you or your partner), you always play the hand out, and the AIs hand is always the dummy.

The game comes with several background images, which are essentially the places you play at. You also get a variety of card backs to choose from.
You can play on a dog's face, at the Golden Gate Bridge, in a forest, and you get the picture. These are well detailed, but that brings up the complaint of why the character's faces aren't as neat.

Audio - The music in this game is easy to play cards to, there is no rock or rap or anything with voice for that matter. This is a lot of soft music, which is okay for a while, but gets really frustrating to listen to. Thankfully, they added a feature that allows you to "Edit the playlist" to only play songs you like.

Features - Some features that are worth praise include the ability to send games to other Game Boys, linked play, and those many save games. If someone is leaning over your shoulder watching you on the Game Boy, and you don't like it, just hook up your Game Boy to his and you can send a copy of any game to his Game Boy. It will stay there until he turns his Game Boy off (exception: Canasta cannot be transferred, I don't know if Bridge can or not). Linked play works well with the exception of when you and the linked person are partners, because you can (obviously) cheat by looking at each other's hands. For games like Crazy 8s where you aren't on teams, this feature works well.

Final Thoughts - If you are thinking about buying this, I would recommend you do. For $30, it isn't terrible, and you will play for hours. There are a few glitches, but all games have them and you just have to deal with it. If you are getting it for the five-card draw poker, I might advise that you pass this up and wait for World Championship Poker, which will be available for all consoles and GBA.

It's pretty good, for a 3 out of 5.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/23/04