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Review

World Championship Poker: Deluxe Series (DS) Review

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Introduction
Up until a few months ago I didnt really know all that much about a poker, I had never played it before in my life, but then I saw an interesting program on TV. I was up late on Saturday night and was channel surfing, and I discovered World Poker Tour. Since then I have been enthralled by this show, slowly but surely it has taught me how to play Poker. So now the DS have its first Poker Game, how does it perform, would it be better to just buy a pack of playing cards, read on to find out.

Graphics
Surprisingly the graphics are really quite good. You would think that because it is a card game that there wouldnt be much to it, well in most cases that would be true, but not this game. You see there are 4 different Casinos for you to play at, each one of these Casinos is presented in full 3d, as is the outside world, you have to walk to get to the other Casinos and on the way the world outside is presented very well. While playing Poker you are shown on of your opponents on the screen, there are a variety of different characters that you will play against in Career mode, each one has their own animations (some are quite funny) but I find these a wee bit annoying, they hold up the play a little bit, they can easily be turned off. The bottom screen is your menu/map/card screen. When you are playing Poker it will display your cards as well as options for you to do (eg Call, Raise, Fold etc etc). When you arent in a game it shows a map of the surrounding area, while you are inside the Casino you can just tap on a table with your stylus instead of walking over there if you wish to join in on a game. The bottom screen does its job very well, its shows you everything you need to know. All in all the graphics are quite surprisingly good well up there with some of the N64 era games.

Sound
Each Casino has its own unique sound, the Western Styled Casino has an old Western Bar sound to it to it, while the Amazon Casino has a sort of tropical sound to it for some reason. Also in each Casino there is background noise, to make the place seem even more like a real casino. Each character that you play against also has their own speech letting you know what they are doing and ones that accompany their animations. The sound is OK, it does provide good atmosphere, it would have been great if there had of been background noise while going from Casino to Casino, other then that I dont really see any area where the sound could be improved.

Gameplay
If youve played poker before or at least know how its played this will be fairly easy for you then, for the rest of you there is a Tutorial in there for all 10 different versions of Poker in there. Yep thats right 10 different versions. If you are like me you wont stay too far from good ole Texas Hold em. Now you can either play Career Mode or Quick Play, career mode is where the real fun is to be had though. As I said before in Career mode there are 4 different Casinos, each Casino gets progressively harder, but you can buy new stats as you go along. You can buy stats to increase your Luck, Skill, Game Face and so on and so on. Also with each Casino the stakes become higher, you play for more money against higher skilled opponents. As well as the 10 different version of poker there are also some other games you can play, there are also a few mini games you can play outside of the Casinos like Air Hockey and Darts. There are also a few Tournaments in each Casino if you want to challenge yourself further. Your in game opponents, of which there are usually six at a table (excluding you), each has there own style of play which you will catch on to, some are more aggressive others like to sit back and then bluff you out.

Value/Lastability
There is a lot to do in this game, 10 different kinds of Poker to master, also things to buy with your hard earned (won) cash, cars to make it easier to get around the place, shirts, jewellery and lots more. The Career mode is quite extensive; itll keep you going for a while. Add to that the fact that you can play Multi-player from a Single Card and youll have plenty to do in this game. Its also one of those games that you can just come back to whenever you feel like it, with out being too worried about where you were last time, a plus in my book.

Overall
World Poker Championship DS is a rather solid little game that will undoubtedly get overlooked by most DS users, but I found it to be to quite fun, maybe thats because of my recent interest in the sport. If you like Poker then I would most certainly give it a look in. As I said I enjoyed a lot, and I think most of you would as well.

Graphics 8.0

Gameplay 8.0

Sound 7.0

Tilt 8.0

Value 7.0

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About The Author
Daniel Worthington
A diehard Nintendo fan since I got my first Game Boy back on Christmas 1992 and haven't looked back since. Got SNES with Super Mario Allstars for Christmas 1993. Favorite games of all time include such amazing titles as Secret of Mana, Kirby Canvas Curse, Chrono Trigger, Zelda Majoras Mask and of course Super Mario Galaxy. I'm a huge retro game fan and own way too many random Game Boy carts to count or name. I host the Vookcast around here and like to chip in with the occasional downloadable title review whenever I can find the time.

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