"Casino FunPak™" (Game Boy)

An original casino game for the Game Boy. Although it presents playable games, you're better off with titles like "Caesars Palace."

Nothing like casino simulation for the young kids to enjoy, isn't it? Not to sound overbearingly controversial, as things are nowadays, but I, too, had a great deal of fun playing casino video games at home without being confronted by another belly-itching security guard acting like they're doing their job. While there are a handful of casino games for the handheld, we decided to give this a try.

The music playing both on the intro and game floor gets repetitive, even giving you the option to turn the music off. The controls are as responsive as you can get as there isn't much when it comes to point-and-click. The graphics aren't too bad for a Game Boy game, and some of the animation were neatly done.

For the gameplay, it's simply casino gambling. If you care to know, according to gambling experts, the game you have the highest chance of losing happens to be Roulette and given how awful the odds are in this game, Slots is another game you're also likely to lose. That eliminates two games out of five already, but having played Blackjack, Craps and Video Poker, your chances of winning are a bit more favorable. Better yet, you have the best odds playing Blackjack, so you may as well concentrate on that. For Video Poker, it's tough because even if you hit a Jacks Or Better, it still doesn't count as a win. For Craps, you'll get a kick out of the video animation of a hand rolling the dice, though you don't actually see the dice out of the hand. The animated gesture of the hand is good enough to turn into a GIF meme (you read it here first).

Tournament mode is welcome to any player, randomly choosing any of the five games available and keeping your winnings recorded at the end of the day. This is best when you've already gotten a feel for the games because they play a little different than the modern casino games of today.

While it's a neat little title, there isn't much a kick that simulates the exact playing of a real casino gaming experience. Personally, having thought I landed some winning hands on Video Poker that never counted as wins really turned me off. Maybe because I've grown accustomed to various poker games like Joker's Wild or Aces Wild.

This is one of those games that are easy to pick up in order to complete your collection. As for playing the game, the simulation of experiencing an authentic casino gaming isn't much to miss. Currently, I'd recommend those PC casino games often priced at pocket change.

Kris Caballero

Founder of KCU Network and KCU Plus, Kris has been writing since he managed a personal blog made back in late 2005. Officially back to doing computer programming (software development) and video production, Kris enjoys reading books on Mathematics, Quantum Computing, Philosophy, playing old video/DOS games, digital video archiving, and listening to sports, public radio and classical music.

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