Clubhouse Games/42 All-Time Classics: Trick Taking On The Go

As part of my digital trick taking craving, after being done with Sierra’s funky opponents in Hoyle Card Games, I suddenly remembered the possibility to play Hearts on the Nintendo DS thanks to 42 All-Time Classics (the name of my PAL copy) or Clubhouse Games (for some reason the name to the rest of the world?). Let’s see how this game collection, this time not limited to just card games, still holds up twenty years later. Hint: it does not.

Back in November 2005, still very early into the life of the Nintendo DS considering it finally arrived in March 2005 in Europe, publishers put heavy emphasis on touch-based mobile conversion games to quickly put out something on the new handheld console and ride the excitement wave. Depending on your opinion of these classic game collections, Clubhouse Games might fall into that category. But then again, there wasn’t a lot out there yet, and this one provided the opportunity to play well-known games together with a few friends.

I fondly remember the amazing feature called “Download Play” that allowed one player that owned the cart to stream his game to nearby Nintendo DS in order for friends to easily join a poker or bowling match—without the need to buy their own copy! Clubhouse Games was one of the frontrunners in that regard, offering a lot of functionality for just a few Euros. Sadly, Download Play seems to be yet another relic from the past (unless you’re lucky enough to have nerdy retro friends).

And that’s a part of Clubhouse Game’s problem nowadays: its biggest attraction is gone; that being local multiplay. Playing against a CPU (with easy/moderate/hard difficulty settings) feels lifeless. Contrary to Hoyle Card Game’s unique AI personality quirks, there’s just a hollow CPU 1 and CPU 2 waiting for you here. And when it comes to card games, even on hard difficulty, they’re still pretty dumb.

The game tries to optimize screen estate by putting an overview of the players and their cards/points/bids on the upper screen while showing a top-down view of the current tricks on the bottom screen, together with your cards to throw on the proverbial table with the help of the stylus. While that works well enough, I was regularly confused as to where which trick went to and which person should be playing next. On every turn/trick, an annoying message slides down from the upper screen all the way to the bottom and up again to helpfully point out which person should be leading next. That UI animation feels like an act of confusion instead of clarification, made worse by the constant bleeps declaring the next trick.

There is no way to review the last trick, no way to change the appearance of the cards, and the actual trick tacking games are limited to your typical Hearts, Spades, Bride (no Euchre, Pinolche, …) That’s perhaps to be expected as Clubhouse Games isn’t Clubhouse Card Games: there’s also checkers, chess, mahjong, or even action-based skill games like darts and bowling yet again showcasing how easy it can be to implement a stylus-based user interaction model. These games are fine if you have time to kill for a few minutes—they’re no Wii Sports mobile equivalent by any means.

To add some meat to the single player bones, there are other two game modes besides just picking a game and playing it: stamps mode and challenge mode. In stamps mode, you play certain games in a sequential order, collecting stamps on wins or losses, unlocking a few extras along the way. In challenge mode, you have to complete certain objectives (win everything at Hearts, score a single pin five times in a row at bowling, …). I guess the idea is that with some added constraints the mundane games might get more interesting. That didn’t work for me as in stamp mode I have to sit through multiple plays of a game I really dislike in order to move on.

Nintendo recently re-created the Clubhouse Games feeling on the Switch by releasing Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics. Fifty-one is more than forty-two, but is it really quantity that matters? In the process, they’ve shredded even more card games that I liked (bye, Spades). Here’s a quick overview of the 51 ones included in the new edition:

Clearly, this newer Clubhouse re-render is also geared towards multiplayer mayhem; both local and worldwide if you’re paying for Nintendo’s Online subscription. In 2005, I was happy enough with the DS iteration as it provided a good amount of fleeting fun for me and my mates carrying a DS (and later the much cooler snow-white Lite). However, if you take a closer look, especially for the card games, there is little incentive to circle back when other options are available.

Clubhouse Games deserved a 3 out of 5 in 2005, but without any multiplayer fun, not so much. Admittedly, the stronger point of Clubhouse is the fact that it offers more than just card games, so perhaps I came looking for a good time on the dual-screened table with the wrong intentions.

Maybe I should tackle 2010’s 18 Classic Card Games next as that one even comes with French Belote and the Dutch Klaverjassen! And then there’s Solitaire: Ultimate Collection, Solitaire: Overload, 1500DS Spirits Vol. 6: Trump, and Ultimate Card Games—all hopefully hidden gems yet to discover.