Card Ace: Casino

Despite the complexity and impressiveness of many of the games on the App Store, sometimes the enjoyment of classic cards games can't be beat. While there are many options for users looking to play Blackjack or poker on their iPhone or iPad, there are very few high-quality free apps to speak of. In this sense, Card Ace: Casino instantly stands out.

Players can choose from three different classic card games to play, including Blackjack, Texas Hold-Em and Word Creation, as well as experiment with the game's slots mini-games. Each of the different card games, as well as the slots, features a clean, easy-to-use interface. And of course, many of these card games offer timeless entertainment, even without the added excitement of betting that comes from playing in a casino or online.

In addition to the different card games to play, there's also a user profile system that lets players upload their picture, chat with friends and maintain a friends list. Truthfully, few free apps for iOS offer such a clean, expansive experience.

While the interface itself is easy to navigate, there's at least one design choice I find a little odd. On the main screen, users can choose to browse by the game type – for example, Blackjack or Texas Hold 'Em – or join other user's games. Much of the screen real estate is devoted to listing thumbnails of other users, which players can click on and then choose to join whatever game they're playing. It's nice to see what other players look like, but considering these are all just random people – not friends from Facebook or any other social network – devoting so much screen real estate for their faces is kind of lost on me. One other small complaint: there's no landscape mode, which is just plain disappointing.

At the end of the day, Card Ace: Casino is a solid app. The problem is I don't know if I'd choose to play it over something like Zynga Poker, which cleverly makes use of user's Facebook network – at least not for Texas Hold 'Em. This isn't a slight against Card Ace: Casino, though, as much as it is a testament of how much Zynga's Facebook integration adds to the experience of its poker app. Then again, Card Ace offers more than just than just Texas Hold 'Em, so there's that to consider too.

[gallery]