Hot Stakes Casino – American Roulette is a simple but confounding roulette simulator. There isn’t much to it, and the game already assumes you know how to play, so the fun factor is just as limited as the replay value.
Without tutorial, instruction, or any sort of guidance, the player is immediately thrown into the roulette table view. Since I am familiar with the rules of roulette, I knew what to do, how to place bets, and the overall etiquette of the game. However, if you have never played before, you will probably be left scratching your head as you try to understand the Excel-like graph of the table. If you want to learn how to play this casino game, this isn’t the game for you.
Like a digital slot machine, you place bets using imaginary money. If you win, you win more imaginary money. If you lose, the game reverts to the main menu where you start again. The only incentive to keep playing is to unlock the pointless images in the Gallery. All Achievements, or Trophies if playing on Playstation, are tied to unlocking these static, worthless pictures of the four playable characters. However, the game doesn’t explain how to unlock these pictures. Do you need to win a certain amount of cash? String X number of wins in a row? Win on certain bets? No clue, but if you are lucky, a couple pictures might pop along the way.
To spice up the gameplay, the player has access to three special abilities to put the odds in the favor of the player. For example, if you lose a bet, using a special power might allow the player to participate in a pick balloon mini game in hopes that your number appears. Or keep your eye on the card as it shuffles in the deck. Or stop the hand on a fast-moving selection. While these special abilities are appreciated and make it more video gamey, they do not add any excitement to the gameplay. In fact, they might cause more frustration as sometimes there is no winning number among the group of selectable bonus options.
There are other baffling and inconsistent design choices as well. For example, the table in the background on the title screen as a single 0 but the actual playable table has both 0 and 00. Also, the game doesn’t let you split 0 and 00, the ball physics as the ball bounces around the wheel do not make sense, there is no option to remove a chip once placed on the table, there is no multiplayer mode, and the game doesn’t display a record of wining numbers. For a roulette simulator, there are many simulator things questionably absent.
Simply put, this is a boring roulette sim that offers next to no excitement or enjoyment. Since the Achievements are also next to impossible to unlock, sadly, this digital download is not recommended in any capacity.
Just As Good As: the handful of boring slot machine sims on NGPC
Better Than: losing all your money in a real world casino
Wait For It: a card counting simulator that teaches you how to win in real casinos
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
X/Twitter: @ZackGaz
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RATING
OUR SCORE - 2
2
SCORE
Hot Stakes Casino – American Roulette is straightforward as digital roulette can be without the excitement of possibly winning money. The lack of options and tutorial means this isn’t the simulator to get you wanting to visit a real-world casino either.