Swords & Poker

Another day, another entry for NaBloPoMo. Today's entry focuses on the iPhone game Swords & Poker, my current go-to gaming fix.

One of the distinct advantages to having an iPhone is the ability to experience 'snack-sized' gaming sessions regardless of where I happen to be at the moment. Obviously, the type of game that can be played on the system differs greatly from that which can be found on the PC or XBox 360, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy them. Since I bought it on a whim a couple of days ago, the game sucking the most of my battery life is Swords & Poker.

The blurb I wrote about the game in this blog entry does not do the game justice. The game is a very simple one; you travel through floors of a dungeon, fighting battles with monsters to progress on your journey. The battles take place on a 5x5 grid which holds cards. The center of the grid (a 3x3 grid) is filled with cards at the beginning of the round, and each combatant (the AI-controlled monster and you) is dealt 4 random cards. The object is to create poker hands with the cards in your hand and the cards on the grid, consisting of 5 card hands going horizontally, vertically and diagonally on the board. When you create a hand, you do 'damage' to your opponent, represented by coins in a coin purse, based upon the weapon you carry. For example, the starting weapon you have allows you to do one point of damage for a single pair, two points for two pair, and so on. This damage scales as you upgrade your weapon, so I am now doing 6 points of damage for a pair, 12 points for two pairs, etc., with the Stylet weapon. By defeating your opponents, you earn bounty money, and by clearing a floor, you also earn money. Items you find along the way in chests also reward you with coins or abilities.

To make a long story short, this game makes use of a very simple mechanic to represent battles. I'm currently on the 16th floor of the dungeon, and have played on the order of 75-80 battles, and the mechanic still hasn't gotten old. It takes time to really see the gameboard and all of the possibilities, and to become truly good you need to learn how to look a few moves ahead and anticipate your opponent's plays. There is a fair amount of strategy involved in this simple game. In the immortal words of Kenny Rogers, "You gotta know when to hold 'em, and know when to fold 'em."

Not surprisingly, this type of game lends itself very well to the portable gaming platform. Another game I likened this to, Puzzle Quest, was best experienced on the go (my personal preference being the DS), even though it is available on the XBox 360 and PC. Both games can be picked up, complete a battle or two, and then put it away, without losing the thread of the game, and that is a quality suited to a mobile platform such as the iPhone.

For those of your still reading, hopefully I haven't lost you too much in all of this topic jumping. Going from yesterday's deep introspective topic to this rather light-hearted subject must seem strange. It's just a window into the bizarre, jumbled and often incoherent workings of my brain. I go back to work tomorrow and have a long commute from my parents' home to my company's closest office, so there's no predicting what I'll come up with to talk about tomorrow. Hopefully you'll be back to find out!