Early this year we first caught wind of the hybrid poker RPG Sword & Poker [$1.99 / Free] and instantly fell in love with the game to the point of awarding it 5 stars in our January best iPhone games listing.
The basic premise of the game is explained in our review:
At the core is a card-based strategy/adventure game where battles take place by making poker hands on a 5×5 grid. When each game starts, nine cards are dealt in to the center of the grid and you take turns with the AI opponent placing pairs of the four cards you’re dealt on the perimeter of the game board to form hands down, across, or diagonally. Jokers are wild, and as you play more hands a gauge in the bottom left slowly fills which allows you to swap a card for a joker as well.
There is a surprising amount of strategy in placing cards, as you need to look at what you’ve been dealt to try to determine the best order to play them as your opponent could also have plans for the same squares you hope to utilize on your next turn. Furthermore, as the game board fills up, you can potentially form multiple hands. A well-planned hand placed on the diagonal could also form many other hands going down or across.
The “Sword" portion of Sword & Poker comes from the roleplaying game layered on top of these poker battles, which could practically stand alone as its own game. Instead of just playing poker battles of increasing difficulty, the games are structured as floors in a dungeon and the challenge differs based on the type of monster you’re fighting.
We don’t really know anything yet about Sword & Poker 2 other than that it is coming soon, and the other sparse details on the Sword & Poker 2 web site. Obviously there are going to be new dungeons, and even new weapons and magic to players to wield. The story is a continuation of the original game, and from the sounds of it, Sword & Poker 2 is going to provide even more Sword & Poker gameplay.
Personally, I can’t wait for the sequel. Sword & Poker really surprised me with how much fun I had with the game and I look forward to making my way through even more dungeons in Sword & Poker 2. If this is the first you’ve heard of Sword & Poker, please, if nothing else, try the lite version.
I LOVE this game! I don't understand it, but I love it; )
Even at 8.99 its a steal. Ive gotten countless hours of bulletdodging fun out of this. BEst schmup on the app tore, and one of the best games on there too, period.
Best shooter available! Everyone, just get it.
Don't work on 32 GB IPOD TOUCH!
works on mine. Are you jailbroken?
Oh, also is your iPod Touch the latest 3rd gen? If so, it should work. 1st and 2nd gen are not supported.
No sale for us Touch users :/
Sucks
This game is absolutely not worth the money if you're not already a fan of bullet hell style shooters. The length is ridiculously short, and without being "into" this sub-genre, I didn't see any replay value.
The goal is to go for the highest scores possible by honing your skills to the point that you know all the enemy patterns by heart and can react accordingly. Length has nothing to do with it.
I used the workaround trick back when it was on sale to get the game to run on my 64gb touch. For some reason now it won't update. My version is staying at 1.00. Is there a way to fix this?
I am a big fan of the ipod and am really looking for the new models coming out!