As poker players go, I am probably the most casual in that department, I know the basic hands and for Poker Pals I’m pleased to say, that’s all you need to know. Poker Pals gives you a new social twist on the game of poker. Those of you familiar with the ‘games with friends’ titles out there just now, you will feel right at hand with this one. So instead of using tiles to spell out a word, you use your cards to make a hand, which in turn gets played on a board. On the board you have joker cards in each corner, if you play your hand using one of these it will pick the best card for your hand, add number to complete a straight or a three of a kind for example.
The social aspect of this game is handled fairly well, as the game is integrated with gamercentre which allows you to challenge your friends and track leaderboard statuses.
However what falls short of making this good game a great game is ‘chat’ its crying out for a little window to be able to message back and forth, even though it’s not the biggest feature of the ‘games with friends’ series it’s a nice feature to have. Also, as this game is published by chillingo it has their own social centre Crystal integrated into it for all you achievement hunters out there.
Don’t let the plugins sway you from trying this game, as the bread and butter poker content is a lot of fun and when you have a figured out your own style of play you will be looking forward to the next push notification advising you it’s your turn.
Poker Pals is available on the iPhone for 69p and iPad for £1.49, or if you are still unsure there is a free trial available on either platform.
