Review: Casino Jackpot
Score:
78%
Version Reviewed: 1.00(3)
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The glitz of Las Vegas (or Greater Manchester if you’re all for the UK Super Casino) is hard to replicate on a phone. Simply because no matter how well you can play the computer gambling games, it never seems to be the same when you start playing in real life (or even, shudder, the online credit card powered casinos that seem to be everywhere). So what we have here, in essence, is a big collection of mini-games, all of which will be familiar to those who frequent the casinos. You have a bank balance that is consistent across all the games (i.e. you don’t have $500 for Blackjack, and another pool of $5000 for roulette – it’s just one burning hole in your pocket). The games in your Jackpot Casino are... Craps, Roulette, Video Poker (6 versions), Caribbean Poker, Blackjack and two slot machines. That’s a good mix, and while I’m half disappointed that they haven’t squeezed in some Baccarrat, it’s a good selection.
I’m pretty familiar, odds wise and game mechanics, with three of those games, so I’m going to look at those ones in depth to see how Jackpot Casino handles.
Blackjack
Probably the most well known game, and one that people believe offers the best chance of winning because it is a game of skill. Which is true up to a certain point. If you can play a perfect game of Blackjack then the house advantage, measured over millions of turns is around 0.5% (i.e. for every $100 you bet, you’ll win $99.50). Of course over the short term, you’ve every chance of ending up ahead and in profit.
This is a slick implementation of Blackjack, and makes use (as all the ‘chip’ games do) of the touch screen to slide your chips from your bank to the table to bet, with touch screen controls on a strip down the side to make your decisions. I would have liked to see the ability to decide which extra rules are implemented (such as the ability to Surrender your hand for half the stake, the option to double down after a split, and the number of 52 card decks shuffled together), but this is a smooth presentation, and could stand up (just) to being an independent game.
Craps
Craps is a dice throwing game based around the number seven. At every point in the game, you can either bet that a seven will be thrown, or a seven won’t be thrown, or another number (4,5,6,8,9 or 10) will be thrown before a seven. There’s a bundle of other side bets (like a 30 to one shot on throwing an 11) but those really are poor payouts.
Jackpot Casino presents the full craps layout on your screen, and it is here that the sliding of the casino chips becomes a great interface. While beginners may stick to one or two chips on a single bet, more advanced players will seed the board with a variety of chips on a number of bets – most of which are beyond explanation in this review.
Needless to say, all of these combinations are easily handled by Jackpot Casino, although there is one area that I’d like to change, and that’s the inability to ‘pull back’ a bet once it has been made. If I put down two bets, one for a six and one for an eight to come out, when one of them hits, in real life I’d withdraw the other bet. That’s not something that I seem to be able to do in Jackpot Casino. Otherwise this keeps up the speed and bewilderment of Craps very nicely.
Video Poker
Finally Video Poker, a game, like the others, of almost pure chance, but I find it a great way to relax, almost like playing a game of patience. You are dealt five cards (and in a real life casino it would be on a video screen, hence the name – the point is a touch moot on a computer ‘simulation’) and you get the chance to exchange any or all of these cards once to make the best hand possible. The better the hand, the more money you win.
There are a number of different styles of Video Poker bundled, and these all affect the payout. The ‘classic’ game is ‘Jacks or Better’ where the lowest paying hand is, obviously, a pair of jacks. Other games include ‘Deuces Wild’ where each ‘2 value’ card is a joker and can be anything. The lowest paying hand there is three of a kind. Having these variants makes it seem bewildering but the built in help screens are always available from the top menu strip to guide you. How you play them, and what strategy to take is something you’ll have to discover yourself.
There’s no variable betting though, you bet 1-5 chips at a time, and that’s it. Higher value machines would be a great addition alongside the machines with different pay tables.
Summary
I like Jackpot Casino – because of the nature of Casino games, it is very easy to dip in and out of without too much thought, and once you’re in the game it’s easy to switch mini-games. I think you also need to have a fair grasp of what each game is all about to fully enjoy them – the built in help is a start, and having a ‘reset button’ on your bank balance is a bonus as well.
I do like the statistics option, and it shows that the game is playing reasonably fair with the randomness. I just can’t help feeling that taking the initial $500 and raising this up to $3,400 in about 6 hours play is anywhere but close to reality. I seem to recall my bank balance going in the other direction at the real Caesars Palace!
All in all, this is a good pot pourri of gambling games, well packaged, with a clear user interface and graphics. If you can stomach the idea that you can’t do anything with your winnings, then cash your chips in for this title.
Ewan Spence, AllAboutSymbian, 18th April 2007
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at