Im officially addicted to another xbox live arcade game. Thanks to the guys on the 1UP Yours podcast I decided to download the trial game for Poker Smash and after a few minutes of playing I instantly unlocked the full game. This game is the best "move the blocks to match things" puzzle game I've ever played.
The premise is that you move these blocks that have different values(Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten) and suites(Spades, Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts) to form poker hands. The only poker hand that wont work is a pair. Three of a kind, full house, flush, straight, and the ever elusive royal flush are all "hands" you can use to clear these blocks off the screen and keep the game going. The only way to lose the game is to let the "cards" hit the top of the screen. Along the way the game also throws challenges at you at what I can gleam random intervals to spice things up. These challenges will be things like match 3 aces or get a straight, and if you hit the challenge in time you will get extra points. Strangely enough this is also the only puzzle game like this I have played that lets you move the blocks more than one space at a time before it snaps back into place. You can move the blocks as many spaces as you want but only on a horizontal axis. Matches can still occur vertically but not movement.
The game has online multiplayer as well that I haven't been able to try because I cant find any matches. There are also a saved film like feature called the theater that lets you save you best games and replay them anytime you like. There is also a leaderboard full of the top 100 films that you can stream and watch of the best players from around the world.
If you've ever fallen in love with a game like Bejeweld or Hexic you have got to give this a shot. Normally I'm not even a big fan of these types of puzzlers, but the fast paced nature of this one and the poker aesthetic make this one different enough from the rest to make it worth your while.
Carlos writes "It’s been a while since we last had any new Xbox One backwards compatible titles to cast our nostalgic minds back to once more, and in the few weeks since the last arrivals, releases in general have been a lot quieter than usual. But that all looks set to change with several new games hitting the store all in one go, and today seeing some fresh faces to the backwards compatible library too.
The thing is, are they worth the return or should they simply remain as nothing more than a memory forever more?"
Microsoft has announced the latest additions to the Xbox One's backwards compatibility catalog. Arriving today are four Xbox 360 games: Street Fighter IV, Luxor 2, Madballs in Babo: Invasion, and Poker Smash.
SFIV and SSFIV are considered different games right? Need to know whether I should be happy or not.
Yes they are different. Sf iv is the very first iteration while super is second and has balance changes as well as new chars, aditional ultra for each character, new stages /modes and of course different arcade mode stories for each character.
Finally, Madballs in Babo: Invasion!!!
I honestly didn't even know it was a game. Hell, I still don't even know what it's about, but the idea of having to Invade Babo with Madballs popped into my head and it just doesn't sound right at all anymore...
lol still waiting for a patch on xbox 360 for that one first so good luck. would be cool.
That's why you dropped your troll comment about two games we don't really care about in an Xbox related article.....they have NOTHING to do with Xbox BC.
I'm playing that too but that doesn't mean I'm not happy about my favorite fighting game being playable on xbox one.
I have access to Zelda but please don't be instigating the console war.
I'll be downloading SFIV asap.
Hardcore Gamer: Poker Smash is not your typical Kickstarter project. Instead of funding the development of a new indie title or physical release of a game, it's attempting to bring a five year old XBLA game to PC. While that may seem like a tall order, it's also a backdoor Kickstarter of sorts to help fund development for Void Star Creations' upcoming title, Junction. We sat down with studio head Drew Card to talk all things Poker Smash, Kickstarter and find out more about their intriguing next game.
