Zynga Poker: Needs More Features
Written: Oct 03 '09 (Updated Oct 03 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: good community, good options, solid interface
Cons: online only, less features than the Facebook app, just Texas Hold'em, chatting discouraged
The Bottom Line: A pretty good poker game if you have access to the internet.
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| kjell1979's Full Review: Zynga Poker for iPhone |
I enjoy a good poker game, but there are so many different poker games out there which are free that allow you to play with virtual chips. I don't fancy myself anything resembling a poker pro. My discipline is about as short lived as my attention span. I often find myself putting more chips into a pot I know I'm not going to win. And every so often I'll go all in with a far inferior hand. Still, I have a good time playing poker. That one moment where you totally own someone who you know is better than you. There are few gaming moments that give me the same satisfaction as playing coy with the superior hand and watching your opponent think he's in the clear with a decent but losing hand. I might never play Halo 3 competitively, but every so often I can just clean someone out.
Gameplay
Zynga Poker is an online poker game for your iPhone or iPod Touch. There is no offline mode, which means there's no computer AI to play against. You're playing against all human players via the internet. Zynga Poker is just no limit Texas Hold'em poker. Texas Hold'em is a game where you're dealt two "hole cards" kept secret from the other players. Then three cards are turned face up, then another, and finally a fifth. The player with the highest hand of five cards out of the seven (5 face up plus your two hole cards) wins the pot. Between each phase of the hand, you can bet or check chips. The no limit aspect allows you to bet all the chips you bring to the table.
Zynga Poker allows you to login using your Facebook credentials. This is handy because this app also exists on Facebook too. This allows you to send chips to people on your friends list as well as collecting the daily lottery chips. In addition there's a wide variety of tables and tournaments. You can play in an open table with 5 or 9 different players max. Within all of these tables you can participate in a table with a $20 (virtual chip) buy in up to tables with a $400 Million (virtual chip) buy in. There are also tournaments which for a fee you can buy into a tournament then the top 3 get different portions from the other 8 people who also buy in at the table.
One of the biggest drawbacks to this game is that the Facebook app has more features than the iPhone app. In the iPhone version there's no VIP tables for people with especially high bankrolls. In addition there's no way to participate in the weekly tournament. Finally, there's no shootout tournament where you compete in multiple rounds where the winner of the table moves on. While this is disappointing, the basic features of the free play tables and Sit N Go tournaments are enough to tide you over.
Controls
The controls are pretty basic. Most actions are button based such as selecting a type of table, whether to bet, check or fold. When there are multiple options like selecting an amount to bet or finding a table with a specific buy-in amount, there's a horizontal dial. These dials work really well and I find them better to use than the typical scroll bars in the Facebook app version. One final control aspect which is kind of annoying is that you can pre-select whether you want to fold or check to speed things along. While that in itself is a nice feature, but once you select that box, you cannot undo it. This usually isn't a problem for me, but every once in a while it's kind of annoying that you folded a hand when you really wanted to change your mind and bet instead.
Graphics
The graphics are pretty decent. The screen is a little cluttered even in the 5 player tables. There are ads that occasionally appear at the top of the screen, but I usually close those out. There isn't much in terms of animation, but at least you can clearly recognize each player through their icons and the cards and betting amounts are pretty clearly represented.
The one aspect of the graphics I don't like is the cluttering of the table doesn't allow you to see the chat window. The chat window is obscured such that you can only see a dozen or so characters per reply and there's no discernable way to expand it so you can see someone's full response. This leads to a much less social environment which takes away from the poker experience. Some of the better poker experiences I've had
Sound
There isn't much in the audio department for Zynga Poker. There's no music to speak of. The sound effects are sparse, but useful. You hear chip stacking sounds whenever someone bets. The most useful sound is the ding you hear when it's your turn to bet, check or fold. This is a very useful sound as it allows you to space out or do something else while waiting for your turn.
Replay Value
For a game that has no offline mode, you rely heavily on your popularity. The more people who participate at the table, the more engaging the poker game is. Still, there are some significant shortcomings which serve as deterrents to playing on your iPhone or iPod Touch. The lack of features compared with the Facebook app will definitely not replace playing on your computer. The other major deterrent is the chat interface really makes for a solitary experience.
Overall the decision to buy or not buy Zynga Poker comes down to cost. The app is free and I do use it more often than not. It's less buggy than the Facebook app, and it's the best poker game for a portable system I have ever played. So if you like playing poker you should definitely consider picking this up. Zynga has a lot of support and cross promotion with their Mafia Wars game as well which helps to drive traffic to their online poker game. If you end up not liking it, then you're not out a ton of money.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
kjell1979
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Location: Oxford, Mass
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Smack! Smack! Sugar Smacks! Give me a smack and I'll smack ya back!
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