What is XBLAH BLAH BLAH?
One thing missing from this blog is my own thoughts on XBLA games. I hadn't really been thinking about it - I post links to other reviews anyway, what else could I possibly add to that?
Instead, I'll do something different - a feedback or a critical analysis of sorts. A list of what I thought were really great, and some either bad or even just nitpicky - to help the developers on the little things. Instead of an arbitrary score I'll post my final thoughts on the overall product. Let's see how this goes!
What's good about Poker Smash?
- The graphics are very nice, the variety of backgrounds is great, and they don't detract from the game or confuse the player with similar colours to the cards.
- The zooming in and the guitar riffs when you get combos brings up the intensity, and a little more fun. It makes you feel like you're doing great even without doing some massive combos - it's things like this that get people to buy the full game after beating the demo.
- I love the idea of having to buy backgrounds and gamer pics using the points you've earned in the game.
- The music is great, it's soothing enough to warrant being in a puzzle game, and isn't annoying elevator music either! Considering the budget restraints a small games like this have, they've outdone themselves. You can download each track here - I'm particularly a fan of Jungle Theme, not so much Haunted Theme. Mine and Rock might be a little too over the top.
- The announcer isn't a pain in your backside, he says just enough and his voice it's annoying at all. "Challenge Met!" and all that.
How could Poker Smash have improved?
- The Help & Options page is a bit of a mess - It's clearly a text file reader with some files thrown in. It's all a bit out of order too - the page describing each kind of hand is far away from the one describing the points given for them. Needed to be cleaned up more with a bit more style - almost everyone will be looking at this in this game.
- Not a fan of the "Self Restraint" achievement. While it does take some skill to actually get it, the way of doing so goes against how one should actually be playing the game, making combos and going for those big multipliers. "Congratulations, you can suck if you really try hard enough!"
- While I understand why Online Multiplayer is done the way it is (Not seeing other players means not having some severe lag issues, consentrating on points only means a lag free game) it lacks the excitement
- I don't think the scoring system is as complicated as it could be. You have scores for same-colour rows, scores for Poker Hands, but not a lot of mixing between the two. For example, getting 5 Diamond Aces in a row will only net you "5 of a kind" with 125 points. There should have been some additional bonuses of getting 3, 4 or 5 of the same suite and colour in a row.
Final Thoughts
Poker Smash is a fantastic little game, bringing the intensity of Puzzle League to XBLA along with some new tricks, while appealing to the thousands of people playing Texas Hold'em every night. It's one of the best looking games on the platform and, unlike some games on the platform, the overall package is great - there really isn't anything you need to overlook in order to enjoy it. At 800 Microsoft Points, it's a steal.
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