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5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: September 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

World Championship Poker is a solid representation of some of the finest, good old fashioned card games. I bought this about two months ago and it hasn't left my DS since. The game contains 12 different card games, each one can be played instantly in quick play mode or can be found in the extensive career mode. Each different card game is located on one of 12 different tables in the 4 different casinos with every casino playing a little harder than the last. The main draw of the career mode is the Texas Hold Em tournaments situated on a separate table in every casino. These tournaments are the main ways to advance through the game. You play against five opponents on a table, each with their own style of play, catchy phrases, and individual characteristics. In order to enter the Hold Em tournaments you need to build up enough cash to buy in to them, this is done by gambling away at the other card tables playing games like Black-Jack and 5-Card-Draw or Texas Hold Em.

The graphics are neatly done, the player animations and casinos all give a realistic feel to the game, but you will be turning the animations off every time you start up your DS simply to speed up the play. The Casinos are themed to a certain style ranging from the Wild West to the Amazon, and are all featured in fully 3D allowing you to walk around from table to table. There is also an actual outside map allowing you to walk between the four casinos in a fully 3D map. An Arcade with an Air Hockey table and a poor Darts game can also be found on the Streets of Casino Lane.

Going back to the Poker itself, the AI is very good for the DS version and does offer plenty of competition for the average player. I personally have been playing Texas Hold Em for nearly two years now and did feel I could quite easily win the tournaments by folding nearly every hand and simply waiting for two good hole cards - you will get one at least once every 20 hands. This figure does decrease as you advance through the game, stats can be bought at the Casino shops and when you hit maximum luck and skill you're almost guaranteed to be getting good cards every five hands or so. This doesn't mean you will win automatically however, with no game face stats your character will be easily readable, enabling the computer to sniff out your pair of Aces in the hole, therefore minimising your potential win. This is the only real issue I have with the game and can be quite annoying even when you reach maximum statistics.

It's almost as if the computer knows what you have. Say you hold 9 10 of clubs and three others are in raising and re-raising as if they hold a monster. You probably wouldn't but say you did call to see the flop and a 9, Ace and a 10 come out. Booyah you think, you've surely got a winning hand and someone must hold the Ace to keep them raising the pot. Nope, every one suddenly stops raising and checks instead, they're not check raising you, they just want out, as if they know you've hit two pair. What happened to all the raising you's were all just doing? Surely one of you must have a pair of Aces? The second you start raising on that they're going to fold and only a few times will they ever call your all in's. I must stress that this doesn't happen very often at all, but when it does happen it will have you foaming at the AI.

Some of the characters also become predictable as you play the game more and more. One particular guy will sometimes raise pre-flop only to fold if you re-raise him no matter what you have. Another player will only play a hand if they have something good, making them a real pain to play against when you realise they're only raising for a reason. Luckily enough the Characters at the table do change for the better as you progress from Casino to Casino and by the third casino you can find yourself in some really close games with the computer opponents.

I haven't played the multi-player yet as I have this on import and know no mates with a DS but I'm guessing that it would play flawlessly. With real opponents to play against it totally eliminates the AI faults and I would imagine that you could have some really good games. Its obviously not going to be the same as playing with real cards and real chips but it would be the perfect substitute if you and your mates don't have a pack handy.

Overall, World Championship Poker DS is a quality game and is easily the best Poker game I've played against computer AI on any format, despite the very few issues I've mentioned in this review. The AI is obviously not going to be perfect due to the infinite possibility of hands that can be played in a card game but it plays well enough most of the time to make you forgive those very rare occasions. The fact that each game is never the same in cards, the surprisingly deep career mode and potentially superb multi-player mode, all add up to make World Championship Poker the perfect time killer for the single player. Great Stuff.

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