Developer: Sofel Publisher: Sofel Release: 10/89 Genre: Simulation
This has to be one of the most pleasant surprises I have come across on the NES. Casino Kid is a game that I am sure I passed over multiple times in Blockbuster. The name sounds generic and I assumed it was just a simple gambling simulator. But in reality it has light RPG trappings that add to its atmosphere and make it better than it has any right to be. A little pomp and circumstance goes a long way toward making even the simplest game that much more interesting.
Casino Kid is a loose localization of $1,000,000 Kid: Maboroshi no Teiou Hen. That game was an adaptation of the manga of the same name. The story in both games differ. $100,00,00 Kid casts you as a young buy imagining himself as a casino champion while Casino Kid sees you physically travel to the casino to compete in a tournament of gamblers. A significant amount of content was cut from the game for no reason such as multiple casinos and more importantly the slot machine and roulette games. Casino Kid is still good as is but it would have been great if it were fully intact.
Casino Kid presents itself as a RPG but that is mere window dressing. You wander around the casino freely and can speak to NPCs to receive tips about your future opponents and their location. The meat of the game is working your way up the hierarchy of both poker and blackjack players to win $1,000,000 and the right to face the Casino King. While you can play games against either blackjack or poker antagonists you cannot skip your way up the unofficial list, mostly because you would not have the capital to compete against the higher rollers.
Once you initiate a match the goal is to exhaust your opponent’s bankroll. The variant of Poker here is draw poker in which you receive five cards and make your starting bets. After you choose which cards to hold you replace the others with cards from the deck. Another round of betting begins and you reveal your hands with the superior hand winning. You can fold at any time if things look dicey to reduce your losses but draw poker has limited possibilities so it is often worth taking a chance. Blackjack is simple, whoever is closest to 21 wins. You have options to double down or to take a chance and split to potentially double your earnings. Of the two blackjack is the quickest by its nature but the game desperately needs (and should have kept) more games.
The pacing in the beginning is slow. Casino Kid has a RPG like grind as you need to build up money to challenge richer opponents. Because you are playing against opponents with little money it takes time for matches to end as you slowly drain their cash reserves. If you catch a streak of bad luck it can be even worse. But once you beat three or four opponents the minimum bet rises significantly and matches can end faster. Because you have so much money you can force them in to an all or nothing bet quicker. It is better to stick with one game like poker first and exhaust all of your opponents and then bring those earnings over and blitz through blackjack. The first half is grueling but the second flies by that way.
Gambling is all about chance. But even with that in mind it often feels like Casino Kid cheats. It is especially notable in blackjack. The computer hits blackjack with regularity. I suppose this is to balance out the speed of matches but it grows tiresome quickly. The computer is bound by one rule; as they are under 17 they will always hit. You can use this to your advantage but you will always lose certain hands. In poker you can generally guess if your opponent is bluffing due to hints. But that quickly goes away as there is no information on the later gambler’s tells. You can count cards in blackjack to make up for it but eventually tedium sets in. I did not know about the hidden menu to bet all money to make things faster at first. It’s risky but that is what gambling is all about.
In Closing
I really like Casino Kid. There are surprisingly few gambling titles on the NES and Casino Kid is one of the best. Most are content to present their offerings in as dry a manner as possible. But tying a story to the proceedings makes it a lot more personable. While it sucks that a lot of the game’s content was removed in translation Casino Kid still remains a worthwhile prospect regardless.
