18 Classic Card Games: Klaverjassen On Two Screens

After revisiting Clubhouse Games on the Nintendo DS to satisfy my craving for (mobile) (digital) classic trick taking games and digging deeper into the Nintendo DS’s huge library, I realized my mistake: I clearly undervalued Clubhouse Games—and perhaps even the PC granddaddy of card gaming Hoyle Card Games. Especially by putting those two games in context of the more obscure DS card games like this one. I rectified the mistake by upping the score.

So what’s up whit 18 Classic Card Games no one probably heard of because the cover looks to be coming straight from the bargain bin? That was probably the most appropriate place for it, and you shouldn’t bother to take it out, even if you really want to play Klaverjassen on the go. This game came out five (!) years after Clubhouse Games and it baffles me how bad it looks in comparison—even though probably they had to make due with one fifth of the budget.

Unsurprisingly, 18 Classic Card Games focuses on card games only, while Clubhouse Games offered much more than that. You’d think the execution of the card play would have been better but then you’d be thinking very wrong. In essence, 18 Classic Card Games is a very bare-bones implementation of 18 well-known and lesser-known games, which is probably its main attraction point or at least was to me. That is because this is the only game I could gets my hands on that lets you play French Belote ,Dutch Klaverjassen, and even the Dutch version of blackjack called Eenentwintigen! (Which is for 99% the same meaning an easy way to up the number to 18?)

Even though there is no dry “CPU 1” and “CPU 2” to play against, but instead a few personas like Emma and Ethan, they are nothing more but names and an ugly avatar shown in the upper screen when playing a session. If you see names or avatars and are coming from Hoyle Card Games, I’m sorry for your loss. You can’t even select who you want to play against: that’s decided at random. At least there’s the possibility to change the face of the cards? Oh wait, you can’t? Whoops.

The UI is likewise atrocious. Selecting a game means pressing the button in the main screen which shows some more info about the selected game, but where is the start button? Oh I have to press the same button again, OK? Hey, what does that help button do? Show the text There are three pages on the main menu. Tap on the arrow buttons to scroll. Really? Selecting cards doesn’t properly highlight them, and not following suit results in an “invalid move!” message. In some games, my opponents were “thinking” meaning the CPU spends more than a second just idling while I impatiently wait for it to become my turn, while in other games that wasn’t there. I suspect that’s another unfortunate sleep(Math.random()).

Perhaps it’s better not to waste too many words on this one except by concluding that it’s pretty bad and should safely stay in that garbage bin. I know, I know, I desperately wanted my own local Belote implementation as well, especially since this game is made in Germany and developers like the one from Hoyle seem to lean towards American or popular trick taking games. I have yet to come across a version that allows me to play Whist.

Is there at least a multiplayer version so I can Klaverjas with my white DS Lite buddies? Nope, sorry: your princess is clearly in another castle. Cerasus.media created more questionable things like 7 Card Games (also in 2010; what happened to the other 11?) and a bunch of mediocre Mahjong and Bejeweled clones.

Oh well. It was worth a try.