World Series of Poker: Hold ‘Em Legend, Glu Mobile’s offering in the Texas Hold ‘Em poker genre, is available from the app store. Offering a highly polished experience and terrific online play, WSOP: Hold ‘Em Legend is Aces in our book.
By now, Texas Hold ‘Em has gained so much popularity and exposure that most people have a good sense of the rules, so we won’t focus on how to play in this review, but rather the gameplay itself. WSOP: HEL offers a top-down view of the poker game, with up to 8 opponents trying to clean you out in any of three game modes: Cash Game, Multiplayer (via wi-fi or Bluetooth), or Legend Career. Cash Game offers increasingly more expensive buy-ins at 7 popular sites, including Harrah’s in Atlantic City and Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Your initial bank roll is $125, enough for the $100 buy-in at 5th Street Pub. Be careful with your dough, though, or you’ll lose it all quickly like we did. WSOP: HEL isn’t real forgiving and won’t just hit you up with another $125 to get back in. You’ll need to earn that money at a free table in Career mode, where you’ll have to put in some major effort just to scrape up enough to get back to the cheap table.
In Career mode, you’ll work your way from the bottom up, moving from city to city if you’re lucky enough to clean up at the table. There are 4 game styles to choose from: Sit & Go, Turbo Sit & Go, Winner Take All, and Shootout. Sit & Go is a single table with a pre-determined chip amount and blinds that increase over time. Turbo is the same, except blinds increase faster. Winner Take All is the same except first place earns prize money. Shootouts are like WSOP events with multiple tables. You must place in the top three to move on. There is also a terrific online Multiplayer mode that sets you up against 8 opponents from around the world in a Sit & Go style tournament where points are earned for 1st through 3rd place. Gameplay is just like you’d expect from the other modes, but you will be playing against actual people who often behave differently than the AI does. Your opponents are chosen randomly, so you cannot set up games with friends, but may luck into a room with someone you know. There is a 30-second time limit per turn to keep the game moving and prevent any one player from hijacking the game by taking too long.
The gameplay is smooth, stylish, and a lot of fun. When it’s not your turn or you’ve already folded, you can tap the screen to speed through play until your next turn or the next hand, respectively. Folding is handled by swiping your cards into the center of the table. Check by double-tapping, or tap once in the center of the table to bet. Betting brings up a turn wheel which allows you to set the dollar amount to bet. Swipe your chip stack to the center to go all-in. There is a strength-of-hand gauge by your cards, indicating the relative strength of your hand. This is a nice feature for newer players to avoid getting into too much trouble during the game. This updates its status after the flop, turn, and river, so you’ll always have real-time feedback. Another interesting feature is the “tells” system. Occasionally, a question mark or exclamation point will appear over an opponent’s avatar, indicating the strength of his hand. A question mark would be a weak hand and an exclamation point is a strong hand. This can also assist a new player in determining whether to press on or get out while the gettin’s good. Take them with a grain of salt, though, as your opponents are likely trying to bluff you, too. Both of these features can be turned off in the Options menu.
The graphics and soundtrack give this game a great Ocean’s 11 feel. The graphics show some nice table textures and really mimic the fancy look of actual casino tables. There are a bunch of avatars to choose from to help “customize” your experience and everything is clearly laid out for you. The chip and card sound effects are standard fare. If you’d prefer, there is an on-screen button that gives you access to your own music library. Controls are touch-based and worked quite well. We were a little put off by the slider wheel, but got used to it quickly. It did seem a bit sensitive, so an option to adjust the sensitivity would be appreciated. There is a nice help section to familiarize yourself with the game elements and rules of play.
Replay value is huge, with online play leading the way. There are also a bunch of achievements to earn in Career mode, from winning two hands in a row to earning $1,000,000 and more. These are fun to pick-up, but without incorporating a system like OpenFeint, you can’t really show off to others. A global leaderboard accessible through the main menu tracks points earned through tournaments. There is even a system to save replays of your best hands. This is a premium game and, as such, is priced in the premium range. Launching at $6.99, it is currently on “mega” sale for $2.99, so act quickly if you want to snag this 5-Dimple stud.
World Series of Poker: Hold ‘Em Legend gets our AppSmile 5-Dimple rating:
