Tag: Card games »

Lots of genres are a bit over-saturated on the App Store, and card games are no exception. Combination card and fighting games, however, are few and far between. Aware of this deficiency, Hothead Games has seen fit to release Kard Combat this week. For the low low price of nothing.

Granted it's still more of a card game than a fighter; players choose from a handful of different mages with a few unique cards in their collection, matches involve planning and strategy as opposed to quick reflexes and so on. The fighting aspects have more to do with the brevity of each match and their one-on-one nature. It utilizes a slightly less complex version of the "line of cards" system some are no doubt familiar with, in which each user lines up their cards while any unopposed summons will do direct damage to the opposing player. Naturally, some cards have special effects that can create some interesting strategies.

Players can try out each of the four types of mages (Holy, Death, Machine and Dominator), as well as the Single Duel and multiplayer modes, for free. Full access to a single mage's campaign will require an in-app purchase of one dollar, while unlocking all four will cost three. And for any players interested in diving straight in to the multiplayer stuff, everything (all cards, etc...) can be unlocked for ten dollars. Bear in mind that the cards can eventually be unlocked through diligent play, and that the ten dollar purchase is only necessary for those who don't want to "waste time" with the singleplayer campaign.

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I know, Halli Galli is probably one of the silliest names for a game on the app store, but I urge you to look past that and spend some time with a simple and incredibly fun set-collection card game for the entire family.

I have to say that this is one of the most frequently played and one of our most requested. Its execution, while simple, provides flexibility that will work as a great challenge for adults, but is easily played with children as young as 3 years old.

Halli Galli is broken into 3 modes, and although the goal in each version is to collect all the cards, how you go about it varies. In each game, you have a split set of cards, and each turn one card from every player's deck is placed on the board. When playing against other players, it's a race to ring the bell, and I'll explain further how each mode works below:

Junior mode - Our MOST played mode and the most accessible mode in the game. In this mode, you watch the cards until you see 2 smiling clowns that are of the same color. If you're wrong, you give one card to each other player. If you run out of cards, you're out of the game and the first player to collect all the cards, wins.

For more complex playing and for older kids and adults, the other 2 modes are great.

Classic - In this mode, each card is of a type of fruit and has a specific number of fruits on each card. Once you see a a set of cards that totals exactly 5 fruits of one kind you ring the bell. The same rules for Junior apply for winning.

Extreme - This is where it gets really complex and challenging. The cards deal faster than other modes, and you ring the bell when you see 2 identical cards or when a monkey appears and there are no lemons, an elephant appears and there are no strawberries and when only a pig appears. Another difference is if you're wrong, you "Go to Jail" and your cards get placed under the bell. The next round you win, you only get your jail cards back. Lose a round while in jail you're out. Everything else is the same.

Each version has 3 different modes. Arcade, Single Player and Multiplayer. With Arcade, you're the only player and if you're wrong, you lose 3 cards (there's no Jail in Extreme). Single Player pits you against 4 computer players with 3 difficulty levels and Multiplayer allows you to play with 2 - 4 people.

I have had so much fun playing this with my 6 year old twins. Huddling around the iPad makes you realize just how perfect a platform it is for these types of games. And it's great, you don't have to set up any cards, you don't have to worry about the bell not working, or someone missing hitting it. You just get to really bond as a family and play a unique and fun game.

I also think it's an excellent educational tool that will get your kids (and you!) to really learn to focus your mind to watch for matches, and is a great way to improve your reflexes and hand-eye coordination.

I cannot recommend Halli Galli highly enough, it's a game that will grow with your family no matter how old they are. And most importantly at the time of this writing both the iPhone and iPad version are on sale for $0.99. You can't even buy a plain deck of cards for that price!

There are plenty of card games on the App Store, but Crack Cards, described by its creators as a kind of "backwards solitaire," has quickly won fans after being featured as a "New & Noteworthy" app. The other thing that makes it unique? Crack Cards wasn't developed by just anyone. Rather, it's the creation of the advanced computers class at Thurgood Marshall Middle School.

Ryan Longnecker, an 8th grade teacher at Thurgood Marshall, said he turned to game development after realizing that traditional lessons about PowerPoint and word processing "just couldn't keep the kids engaged." So, he started branching out into web design and game creation. "Game design is one of the hardest lessons I've ever taught," he writes. "Trying to keep everyone on the same page is nearly impossible, but the kids LOVE it and you see them light up when they walk in to the computer lab."

Crack Cards, created as a class-wide effort, is the fruit of those lessons. Mr. Longnecker says that it's based off of a game he played in his own childhood. The game's rules are pretty simple. Four cards are dealt out each turn, and if any two cards share a suit, the lower can be removed from the game. This continues until there are no more moves available, and then four more cards can be dealt; the game ends when either there are no more moves or when only the aces are left. But while playing the game is simple, winning is a much more difficult proposition. The game's description dares players to look past the luck to find the strategy.

For now, the game is single-player (apt, considering its similarity to solitaire) but the app's description promises future updates with a Versus mode. Perhaps that's the class's next project!

The 8th grade advance computers class at Thurgood Marshall Middle School should be proud of their work—Crack Cards looks like a fun twist on the usual solitaire variations, and beyond that, creating an iPhone app is no small feat. I wish my AP Computer Science class in high school had worked on projects this interesting!

Crack Cards is available for $0.99 on the App Store.

Who feels like doing math when playing card games? Games that include score-keeping, especially complicated or high scoring games, can sometimes go unplayed because of a lack of interest in any of the players to keep score. Even with a calculator handy, score-keeping can still be a time-consuming process that adds boring breaks between rounds.

I was about to sit down and play Rook yesterday (a card game that involves score-keeping) and decided to see if there was “an app for that” on the iPad. I came across Score This by Roxo Designs.

I was searching for a specific Rook scoring app, but I found one that can be customized to play for most card games with scoring. Score This has a list of options to pick before starting a game: if the higher or lowest is the winner, starting score, whether or not the game includes bidding (like Rook), and the players. Score This also keeps track of player stats (percentage of wins).

Score This goes for $1.99 for the iPad. No iPhone version exists yet.