1) Poker Night 2
Developed & Published By: | Telltale |
Release: | April 2013 |
Also Available On: | PlayStation, iOS, PC (Steam) |
MetaCritic Score: | 75 |
You may already know Telltale through their licensed adventure games. Developing many adventure games such as Sam & Max, The Walking Dead, and Batman, the company shows a special interest in poker. That’s why it releases a game based on variants of Texas Hold'em and Omaha Hold'em Poker, Night 2, as a sequel to “Poker Night at the Inventory.†In other words, it offers a classic poker experience. However, it is not this feature that makes it interesting: The game offers the chance to play against the famous heroes of famous franchises. What do you think of a poker tournament against Borderlands, Portal, Monkey Island, Evil Dead and The Walking Dead heroes? Moreover, all of these heroes are voiced excellently and are making the right interpretations of their characters. Poker Night 2 also includes a level system based on experience points and opens up new cards, coins, and table designs as you level up.
2) Casino Nights
Developed & Published By: | GZ Storm |
Release: | December 2010 |
Also Available On: | N/A (Coming soon to PC) |
MetaCritic Score: | N/A |
Casino Nights, which you can buy from the Live Arcade store for just $ 1, is the work of a team of three. It consists of Roulette, Blackjack, Red Dog, Slots, Video Poker, and Keno games. From the main menu, you can select the one you like and start playing. You can also win trophies and redeem them for virtual coins that can be used in any of the games. The graphic quality of Casino Nights is unfortunately not very advanced, especially in slot games. However, it is a rare title because of its unique “all-in-one†setup: Many Xbox 360 gambling titles are focused on card games only. It also has a significant advantage: you can try all casino game tactics and see if they work or not, for free.
3) Full House Poker
Developed By: | Krome Studios |
Published By: | Microsoft Game Studios |
Release: | March 2011 |
Also Available On: | Windows Phone |
MetaCritic Score: | 69 |
You have probably never heard of the “1 vs 100†game, though Full House Poker is considered its spiritual successor. It allows you to play at poker tables with the avatar you created in a virtual casino and play a different poker variant at every table. The game has cute and cartoon-like graphics and an easy-to-use interface. Real-money gaming option is not available. For Texas Hold'em variation, tournaments are constantly being held, and winners are announced on the main screen. (A tournament takes about 25 minutes on average.) There is a level-based progress system, and you unlock different rewards with each level. The prizes are visual only, such as a new character skin, card design or table color. But the most beautiful feature is that it is a real multiplayer game: The other avatars you see in the game belong to real people. So you can play with them or against them, even chat in the course of the game. There’s also has a version called “World Series of Poker: Full House Pro,†which is played with real money and has the official World Series of Poker license. (However, note that servers of this version are shut down in 2013.)
4) World Championship Poker: Featuring Howard Lederer "All In"
Developed By: | Coresoft |
Published By: | Crave Entertainment |
Release: | November 2007 |
Also Available On: | Wii, PSP, PS2 |
MetaCritic Score: | 54 |
World Championship Poker is actually the name of a series, developed for the PlayStation 2 platform. Since the series became very successful, developers decided to redesign it for the Xbox 360 platform and added the name of the world poker champion into the title: Howard Lederer. The game is based on Texas Hold'em style poker, but unfortunately, did not get much of a good score at the time of its release. It was not a bad game, the reason for the low scores was that it just didn’t bring any new features compared to previous titles. You can only play against artificial intelligence, and there is no multiplayer feature, but this is still one of the best games you can choose for the classic Texas Hold'em experience. Moreover, it has a feature that is unique to the game: it can be played from the first person's point of view, like an FPS. Even the Wii version is even more interesting in this regard because it uses the motion detection capability of Wii Remote and it is possible to distribute cards with realistic movements.