Iron Draggon
01-29-2005, 07:25 AM
Well I must say, after playing Super Solitaire and Vegas Stakes, both games are surprisingly entertaining. You wouldn't think that such typically portable or PC type games would be all that fun on a console, but they are alot of fun. So I'm glad I gave them both a shot. I know that most of us tend to think of our consoles as devices for playing arcade type games more than such traditional fare as these card games that could be played just as well with a deck of cards and some imagination, but it really is amazing how fun they can be on the SNES. I wasn't expecting very much from them, but I was pleasantly surprised by both games, and I actually recommend them. They aren't very much, but for what they are, they really aren't too bad!
Super Solitaire isn't very easy to find mint complete due to it's rarity, but if you do find at least a loose cart for cheap, go ahead and give it a shot. It has 12 different games to choose from, and each one has been made alot more interesting than you would think. You get points represented in $ for each card that you manage to get to its final destination, so it makes it fun to pretend that you're actually getting all that cash. Hey, maybe you could work out some kind of betting game with it and a friend, to make it even more interesting! Anyway, it has alot of features and options, and really in alot of ways it's more enjoyable and feature rich than the standard Windows solitaire game that comes with every PC running some version of Windows. In fact it has alot of features and options that I've never even seen in any PC solitaire game, so the only area that I would say it's lacking in is the far lower resolution of the SNES compared to the average PC monitor, but for the SNES the graphics are as good as any card game could ever hope to be. But the neatest surprise came at the end of the game when I lost and had to abandon it. All of a sudden, this big festive looking jack-in-the-box popped out at me full screen size, holding a sign that said Game Over. It was a very nice touch, and almost made it worth it to lose a game, just to see it. He sat there bobbing around on his spring and dangling that sign in my face, and I was like well aren't you just too cute to be bearing such bad news for me? So it's really pretty neat, for something as mundane as solitaire, and I'm glad to have it in my collection. Now if only I had a portable SNES to play it on!
Vegas Stakes can be found dirt cheap just about anywhere any day of the week, even brand new and factory sealed, which falsely led me to believe that it must not be a very good game, if everyone in the world is trying to get rid of it by the case on ebay, and they've been trying to sell it off for years now. But happily this really couldn't be any further from the truth. It's actually a very good casino game for such an old console, and even without all the bells and whistles of a modern PC casino game, I still found it to be very entertaining and alot of fun to play. It has 5 different games to choose from, and again each one has been made alot more interesting than you would think. You start out with enough money to make you wish that you could trade it all in for real cash without ever playing any of the games, but just pretend that it is real money and you really are in Vegas playing all these games, and you'll be having fun in no time. Blackjack, Slots, Roulette, Craps, & Poker are all here, and you can play in any of 5 different casinos. There's multiple opponents to choose from, as well as multiple advisors. I did quite well on the slots, and I definitely wish that there was a way to make my SNES spit out all that money at me for real! But still it was alot of fun just pretending. I don't really know some of the games well enough to play them correctly, but fortunately your advisors can explain them all to you, so you don't even need the manual to be able to get into all the action. This is good news for those who only bought a loose cart, and just in case you're wondering, that solitaire game is the same way. So if you need to know the rules of any of the games, you're covered in both cases, just with the carts. Anyway, it's nicely animated and it has some nice little touches of its own. In this case, if you lose all your money, then you'll see your sad empty pockets hanging out trying to flag down a ride back home on the outskirts of Vegas. Not exactly as consoling as a festive jack-in-the-box, but in this case the big consolation is knowing that none of that money was real, and all that you're really out is whatever the cart cost you. And even if you way overpaid for it, this couldn't possibly have been very much. So again, go ahead and give it a shot, it's really not as boring as you'd think that a game like this would be. Of course it's not a thrill a second, like an arcade game, but it has it's moments!
So there you have it, a couple of surprisingly fun playing card games for your SNES that make for a very nice way to fluff up your collection a bit without having to resort to sports games. They may be the sort of thing that you'd typically play on your PC or your PDA or one of your portables, but they're still not bad at all for playing on your SNES. They do make me wish that I did have a portabl SNES to play them on, because they'd be much better suited for that, but they're still a good way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon or something in front of the TV doing something besides vegetate on reruns. I think that they compliment each other very nicely, and apparently Nintendo agreed, because they're both from 1993. So yeah, they're a bit outdated for modern times, but for any retro gamer who owns a SNES they're still pretty chic! But best of all, you don't have to mess with shuffling all those cards yourself, and 52 Pickup isn't one of the games on either cart. So if like card and casino games, these two are certainly worthy of a purchase. I'll be enjoying them for many years to come, even though I won't be playing them religiously like I would an arcade game, but I will still play them alot. It's fun to pretend that I really am winning all that money just for playing cards!
Oh yeah, I almost forgot! Both games are compatible with the SNES mouse! 8-)
Super Solitaire isn't very easy to find mint complete due to it's rarity, but if you do find at least a loose cart for cheap, go ahead and give it a shot. It has 12 different games to choose from, and each one has been made alot more interesting than you would think. You get points represented in $ for each card that you manage to get to its final destination, so it makes it fun to pretend that you're actually getting all that cash. Hey, maybe you could work out some kind of betting game with it and a friend, to make it even more interesting! Anyway, it has alot of features and options, and really in alot of ways it's more enjoyable and feature rich than the standard Windows solitaire game that comes with every PC running some version of Windows. In fact it has alot of features and options that I've never even seen in any PC solitaire game, so the only area that I would say it's lacking in is the far lower resolution of the SNES compared to the average PC monitor, but for the SNES the graphics are as good as any card game could ever hope to be. But the neatest surprise came at the end of the game when I lost and had to abandon it. All of a sudden, this big festive looking jack-in-the-box popped out at me full screen size, holding a sign that said Game Over. It was a very nice touch, and almost made it worth it to lose a game, just to see it. He sat there bobbing around on his spring and dangling that sign in my face, and I was like well aren't you just too cute to be bearing such bad news for me? So it's really pretty neat, for something as mundane as solitaire, and I'm glad to have it in my collection. Now if only I had a portable SNES to play it on!
Vegas Stakes can be found dirt cheap just about anywhere any day of the week, even brand new and factory sealed, which falsely led me to believe that it must not be a very good game, if everyone in the world is trying to get rid of it by the case on ebay, and they've been trying to sell it off for years now. But happily this really couldn't be any further from the truth. It's actually a very good casino game for such an old console, and even without all the bells and whistles of a modern PC casino game, I still found it to be very entertaining and alot of fun to play. It has 5 different games to choose from, and again each one has been made alot more interesting than you would think. You start out with enough money to make you wish that you could trade it all in for real cash without ever playing any of the games, but just pretend that it is real money and you really are in Vegas playing all these games, and you'll be having fun in no time. Blackjack, Slots, Roulette, Craps, & Poker are all here, and you can play in any of 5 different casinos. There's multiple opponents to choose from, as well as multiple advisors. I did quite well on the slots, and I definitely wish that there was a way to make my SNES spit out all that money at me for real! But still it was alot of fun just pretending. I don't really know some of the games well enough to play them correctly, but fortunately your advisors can explain them all to you, so you don't even need the manual to be able to get into all the action. This is good news for those who only bought a loose cart, and just in case you're wondering, that solitaire game is the same way. So if you need to know the rules of any of the games, you're covered in both cases, just with the carts. Anyway, it's nicely animated and it has some nice little touches of its own. In this case, if you lose all your money, then you'll see your sad empty pockets hanging out trying to flag down a ride back home on the outskirts of Vegas. Not exactly as consoling as a festive jack-in-the-box, but in this case the big consolation is knowing that none of that money was real, and all that you're really out is whatever the cart cost you. And even if you way overpaid for it, this couldn't possibly have been very much. So again, go ahead and give it a shot, it's really not as boring as you'd think that a game like this would be. Of course it's not a thrill a second, like an arcade game, but it has it's moments!
So there you have it, a couple of surprisingly fun playing card games for your SNES that make for a very nice way to fluff up your collection a bit without having to resort to sports games. They may be the sort of thing that you'd typically play on your PC or your PDA or one of your portables, but they're still not bad at all for playing on your SNES. They do make me wish that I did have a portabl SNES to play them on, because they'd be much better suited for that, but they're still a good way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon or something in front of the TV doing something besides vegetate on reruns. I think that they compliment each other very nicely, and apparently Nintendo agreed, because they're both from 1993. So yeah, they're a bit outdated for modern times, but for any retro gamer who owns a SNES they're still pretty chic! But best of all, you don't have to mess with shuffling all those cards yourself, and 52 Pickup isn't one of the games on either cart. So if like card and casino games, these two are certainly worthy of a purchase. I'll be enjoying them for many years to come, even though I won't be playing them religiously like I would an arcade game, but I will still play them alot. It's fun to pretend that I really am winning all that money just for playing cards!
Oh yeah, I almost forgot! Both games are compatible with the SNES mouse! 8-)