This Aint Even Poker, Ya Joker

My only complaint is that the game isn’t longer. But, for $3 I am happy with the purchase. Gave me a good 7 hours of engaging game play that make sense with no spammy mechanics. I really enjoyed this game!

This is a really fun game and it seems like the developers care. The writing is funny and gameplay engaging. The issues it has are fixable. Primarily the pacing is just too fast. After my first overnight idling, I had enough to max out all the fairy upgrades, leaving no goals to grind toward or unlocks to look forward to discovering. And on the next run I had way too many new gameplay elements to get used to all at once, and at the same time was upgrading rune-level upgrades so fast I didn’t have time to learn what anything was for. There is no sense of tension, strategizing, build up, or looking forward to unlocking anything. I’m just mashing upgrades all over the place as fast as I can. A faceroll. Which really took the fun out of it. It seems like slowing the pace quite a bit would solve this, so that I could enjoy it across weeks with multiple runs per major prestige, maybe even having to idle to push through a plateau. That’s what makes a good roguelike fun. Just make things cost more, let growth happen slower, and other small tweaks to get it balanced. Other issues are cosmetic. The particle effects, even when graphics are turned low, are honestly blinding. As in, I can’t even read the cards. It runs my battery down faster than it can charge. I really don’t need a light show to enjoy a game with this level of intrinsic fun. I’m here to strategize and watch the numbers go up. I don’t need the gimmicks.

This game definitely scratches the dopamine itch, with cards flipping over, flashing lights, and increasingly large numbers filling the screen. Unfortunately, that’s the extent of the game for the next 4-5 hours, with a few incremental unlocks (jokers) and specialty cards. The upgrade prices increase exponentially from thousands to millions to billions to trillions, but the resulting “big ticket” items don’t move the needle enough. If you’re happy with “number go up” (but slowly), this is a good fit. I enjoyed my time, but after a few hours I uninstalled because I felt like I had seen everything there was to see (I didn’t really explore the new suit variants because it was just more of the same).