3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
You're better off putting the $50 on black
Date of Review: Sep 17, 1999
Throwing your money on a real casino table at least yields a close to 50% chance of getting something for your money. Golden Nugget on the other hand is a guaranteed loser. Sure you can play real casino games, but it doesn't really help you improve your games.
Here's the skinny, I would have never even played this game had a friend of mine not had it. I love the guy, but he and his wife are morons when it comes to gambling. And they are idiots when it comes to video games. They talked me into playing blackjack on Golden Nugget, and I have to say that this game is worthless.
You start out with $10,000--the usual sum that I take into a casino to spend. What's great though, is that if you lose it all, you don't even have to reset the game to get another $10,000, just like in real life. What joy. Okay, so there isn't much of a challenge involved, maybe it could teach my friends how to play casino games better, so they won't lose so much when they go to the boats. Snake eyes on that one. Aside from teaching the basic rules to these games, it does little to help players develop their game, in fact it makes the games seem easier than they actually are. Just a thought here, but now I've got a friend who's going into the casino thinking that he's got an unbeatable strategy. What's more, each interface that we played had serious flaws.
In Blackjack, you have no idea of when the cards are being shuffled or how many decks there are in the shoe, hence what good is card counting. For a serious player to develop a mathematical advantage over the house he must know the relative card distribution within the deck and change his bets accordingly--this simulation does not allow for that.
The poker is flawed by having some of the worst computer AI opponents. Is it really fun to take idiots' fake money. I actually don't mind this too much because my friend's -did I mention that he's also my manager- weekly poker night has paid off well for me.
The real tragedy is craps though. I really think that it's a fun game, and the player has the best odds against the house when playing. I thought that my friends could have learned how to play but the interface makes playing craps incredibly daunting let alone learning.
Probably the worst aspects about this game are that it has that solitaire for windows addiction going for it, so when I stop by my friends place and they are playing it's really difficult to get them off and say go out to see a movie or something.
My biggest complaint however is that the N64 is a system that is targeted for kids. Gambling is something that I've seen ruin a number of lives. It's something that children should not be exposed to. My friends are adults who can make their own decisions, but treating gambling in a casino like it is a game is inappropriate for players under the age of 21. I can not emphasize how dangerous compulsive gambling is. If you doubt me, just peruse the slot machines of a nearby riverboat, take a look at how zombified these people are. I feel that this software misrepresents the dangers of gambling and acts as a gateway to real gambling.
Parents do not buy this for your kids!
