Many consumers feel (and publishers acknowledge) that mobile games are a little on the pricy side right now, given that purchase prices are reaching toward the double digits. This price growth has touched off a countervailing movement toward value pricing and bundling at the other end of the spectrum--one that is sure to benefit gamers in the long run. In the near term, however, publishers like Superscape are still trying to determine the right balance between breadth and depth of content in their casual-games bundles. Capone Casino offers six popular casino games in a single download, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a great value. In this case, the developer would have better served gamers by offering fewer games of a higher quality.
Capone Casino, which could be named either for the famous gangster or lead programmer Nick Capone, is a full-featured virtual gambling establishment that boasts six games: video poker, slots, baccarat, roulette, blackjack, and pai gow poker. All of the games draw from a single bank. If you run yourself down to zero with poor play, the game will simply refill your coffers with a cool $1,000, no questions asked or penalties levied.
Since there's no way to compare bank sizes online, play against other people, or even see how many times you've bankrupted yourself or what your all-time record is, you'll have to content yourself with simply ringing up as much cash as you can in the casino. The games themselves play exactly the way you'd expect, only without any of the customizable options many other mobile casino offerings have. For example, there are no variants to be had in video poker--it's just jacks or better--and the same goes for the other games, like blackjack. On the other hand, the game does offer a brief explanation of how to play each game, even though it doesn't go into great detail.
Each of these six games looks and plays as if the developer cooked up the quickest, dirtiest adaptations possible and cobbled them together. Equivalent games offer advice on how to play, admonishing you when you make a bad move, but not here; Capone Casino remains eerily silent, even as you condemn yourself in blackjack by busting every time with $100 bets. Well, not completely--the game does make some soft sound effects on the LG VX7000, and it has a snazzy gangland opening theme, too. However, the nicest thing you could say about the in-game graphics is that the outcome of a particular game is always clear. The interface is impoverished well past the point of being "utilitarian" or "spartan," and the visuals are extremely drab. Embellishment and creativity are entirely lacking in the game's presentation.
Capone Casino has achieved the noble ideal of providing six games for the price of one, but it's still not worth downloading, because each of the games is among the worst in its class--especially when compared to competitors that concentrate on a couple of games and do them right. There's no reason why "value" needs to be synonymous with "cheap." All but the most avid gamblers should probably avoid this one.
