February 6, 2008 - Why
eradicate jewels or geometric shapes in puzzle games when you can smash
playing cards instead? Maybe that was the question on the minds of the
developers at Void Star Creations as they set about designing their
first game, a hybrid poker-puzzler coming to Xbox Live Arcade this
week.

Poker Smash
replaces the familiar jewels of Bejeweled, gems of Puzzle Quest and
glittery blocks of Super Puzzle Fighter HD Turbo Remix with the face
cards of your drunken poker nights. The result is a solid XBLA game
with a glossy exterior that puts a snazzy new spin on the puzzle gaming
experience without offering anything especially revolutionary to an
already crowded field.

The main single-player mode of Poker Smash is built around an
upward-scrolling table that reveals cards one row at a time, gradually
getting faster as play progresses. Your goal is to arrange the cards
into valid poker hands by sliding them horizontally across the table,
building combos and gaining multipliers as you're able. We say poker
hands, but we're really talking about hands involving only 10, J, Q, K
and A, as there are sadly no 2 through 9 cards in Poker Smash.

Void Star expanded on its basic poker/puzzle concept by adding the
ability to speed up and slow down the scrolling of the table; bombs
that can be strategically placed to clear cards and build combos; and a
sampling of extra online and offline modes. In addition to the main
mode, there's a timed mode and a puzzle mode that's actually better
practice than the game's practice mode.

One of Poker Smash's best qualities is its top-notch presentation. The
game has a smooth, snappy HD look and the cards, visual cues and other
graphical elements are well-laid-out and easy to read. Menus are easy
to navigate and the tutorials are quick and easy to use. The controls
are fairly intuitive and precise, and there are unlockable themes to
collect as you progress in the game. The sound effects in Poker Smash
are well-done, but the music is often distracting--a truly unwelcome
trait for a puzzle game.

Poker Smash has a two-player split-screen mode and both ranked and
un-ranked online multiplayer modes that pit players against one another
to battle over a community pot of poker chips. An optional "dealer"
function also allows players to send cards to their opponent's table
when they match certain combinations.

Unfortunately, the online multiplayer mode only shows the action on
your table, not your opponents'. That means the only tell you have
about their progress is the chip count displayed on your screen. The
online multiplayer is there in Poker Smash, but it doesn't shine like
the game's showy graphics.

Closing Comments
If you
already have a stable of great puzzle games in your Xbox Live Arcade
lineup, there's really not much reason to pick up Poker Smash,
especially if you've already gotten your table gaming fix with Texas
Hold 'Em. But if you're a sucker for eye candy and you're looking for a
twist on the line-'em-up-and-clear-'em genre, Poker Smash is a
well-crafted game with a good variety of modes and options.
IGN Ratings for Poker Smash (X360)





RatingDescription

out of 10
8.5	Presentation Poker Smash looks nice, plays smoothly, and its menus are easy to use.
7.5	Graphics This ain't your daddy's poker night. Get ready for fireworks, explosions and quick-zooms, all wrapped up in a slick HD package.
6.5	Sound Once we turned the music off, the sound got a lot better.
6.5	Gameplay Making hands and clearing cards is fun, but we won't be making any trips to the Poker Smash addiction clinic.
6.5	Lasting Appeal If it hooks you, Poker Smash's various modes (both online and offline) should keep you plenty occupied.
7.5 Good	OVERALL (out of 10 / not an average)