Xbox Indie Games Review - Poker Stacker 2

The description describes the game pretty well but the general idea of the game here is that cards drop from the top, Tetris style, but instead of making a full line of blocks you need to make a valid poker hand. This includes 2 of a kind, full house, royal flush, etc. If you have no idea what any of that meant then there's a helpful instructions screen that shows examples of each combo you can make.

The game gets more difficult by increasing the difficulty of the hand you need to make. It starts with asking you to make any pair (2's or higher) and it gets harder by jumping to 8's or higher, 10's or higher, etc. It seemed to jump up the difficulty every 2/3 levels (with 3/4 pairs in each level).

I enjoyed the game but after 2/3 playthroughs it started to get pretty repetitive. You have a local highscore table, showing the top 3 scores, but there's not much incentive to beat my previous scores. One thing I could see improving the replayability is awards (aka achievements but indie games can't use the word 'achievements'). Having some awards like 'Make 5 royal flushes' and the like would give me incentive to try and build the better hands instead of just matching the lowest mark.

The game gives you hints when you can make a higher combo. If you have 2 aces in a line and another one pops up it'll say 'Try making 3 of a kind' or something similar so I would start scanning the cards to see where I had 2 aces in one line. I thought that was really helpful but it was almost like cheating. I have a flush and royal flush opportunity that I never would've caught if it wasn't for the hints. I got about one hint per level which wasn't nearly enough to be over the top so that was a cool feature.

If you're looking for a Tetris fix or you're a poker fan (even though it's not really a 'poker' game) I'd recommend it for a quick fix.

Rating - 7/10