Developer: Sofel Publisher: Sofel Release: 04/93 Genre: Gambling
Something strange happened near the end of the NES life. For some reason publishers decided now was the time to flood the market with gambling games. Between Blackjack, Caesar’s Palace, Hot Slots, and Vegas Dream all the 12-year old gambling addicts were spoiled for choice. The original Casino Kid was the most interesting gambling game on the NES as it combined the card games with a faux RPG structure. It was an ambitious idea for the NES, but it had its flaws. Whether you will enjoy it depends on your tolerance for slow pacing and repetitive gambling mechanics. Casino Kid 2 aims to correct the flaws of its predecessor and does so somewhat. But it is still a divisive title that will only appeal to fans of the first game.
One year has passed since the Casino Kid became the king of games. But his opponents have not fully accepted defeat. Gamblers from around the world compete among themselves to find the best of the bunch to once again challenge the Casino Kid. The top gamblers issue challenges, all lead by a mysterious leader. To keep his title the Casino Kid has no choice but to travel around the world to prove he is still the best.
Casino Kid 2 loses the RPG structure of its predecessor and is more straightforward. There is no casino overworld to explore as you search for opponents and receive hints from patrons. You select your destination on the world map and it gets right to it. I actually miss the prior game’s structure. True it was annoying wandering around the show floor looking for someone to match with. But it gave the game a unique flavor that pretty much every gambling game lacks. Most are dry and lack pomp and circumstance to make them more interesting. Blending gambling with an RPG-lite structure did wonders to make the proceedings lively. They simply needed to offer a little more guidance. At least opponents have more unique personalities and betting styles, adding variety.
While the casino structure was a weakness of the original game what it was mainly lacking was games. Casino Kid 2 adds roulette to its roster of blackjack and poker. In addition there are significantly less opponents to progress the story. There are nine gamblers around the world, three for each game. In addition they have ranks in terms of difficulty allowing you to somewhat tailor your path through the game. Although it is less content it helps alleviate the biggest failing of the first title, repetition. There was no reason to have ten yokels for each minigame with minor differences. It was padding, and considering how slow that game was it was a slog for me to finish it in the end.
Mechanically poker and blackjack are virtually the same. Growing up I was not a fan of poker but titles like Casino Kid turned my opinion around. While the various hands are a lot to remember (at least for me) the mind games of trying to psych out your opponent never gets old. The AI is fair in this game and generally I found I could drain each gambler’s funds at a brisk clip. In addition you do not have to wait until near the end to go all in or to initiate a final bet. Unfortunately the AI in blackjack feels cheap in this game. Anytime you hit at 13 or 14 it is an almost guaranteed bust. Even though the cash totals for blackjack are low these tend to be the longest and most repetitive matches.
Roulette is the big addition and frankly it is boring. Admittedly I am not a fan of roulette to begin with but its implementation here is lacking. Each gambler offers subtle “hints” that are supposed to help predict where the ball will land. These comments and hints are so nebulous you will have to create a chart to keep track and even that does not help much. More than likely you will have to save scum to get past this one. There is an element of luck to gambling of course but roulette takes it to an insane degree.
Despite the various changes and additions Casino Kid 2 is still heavily reliant on luck. Even skilled play can be ruined by bad hands. Patience is a requirement, not necessarily skill. As I said before poker seems fair but blackjack will get on your nerves. Some opponents play conservatively and will drag matches out. I found myself trying to force a final bet a lot just to move the story along. The saving grace is that there are less gamblers to go through so while it can be a slog sometimes the repetition is not as bad.
In Closing
Casino Kid 2 is not as novel as the first game yet remains compelling. It is not as ambitious as the first game, but does at least improve on its pacing. It does not completely correct all the flaws of its predecessor but it does not need to. If you like the first game you will like this one. But if gambling is not your thing nothing here will change your mind.
