Hoyle Classic Card Games

Demo Version - 1.2 MB - This is a non-playable Demo of Hoyle's Classic Card Games. It basically plays out as a video showing you some of the highlights of this game.

Welcome to the fourth installment of Sierra's Hoyle series of games. This time around they take a full circle back to the beginning and release an updated version of the first game. How can this be a full circle, you ask? Well, they keep the same formula, and then try to add to it. Back is all 6 games that were included in the original, plus 2 more, as well as the ability to play against some of your beloved Sierra characters. Surely this must be a hit...

Well, let's look at some of the facts. Yes, all the games from the original are in this one, including Cribbage, Crazy Eights, Old Maid, Hearts, Gin Rummy, and Klondike. Then they added 2 more games to the bunch: Bridge and Euchre, which brings the total card game count up to 8. Now, if you take the list of characters from the first game to this one, unfortunately Hoyle 1 beats this game out hands down. Yes, this game notably kept trademark characters such as Roger from Space Quest, King Graham from King's Quest, and Larry from Leisure Suit Larry, but characters such as Sonny Bonds from Police Quest, and Princess Rosella from King's Quest are noticeably missing right from the start. In their places we get Quarky from Quarky & Quaysoo's Turbo Science, and Pepper from Pepper's Adventure's in Time. And instead of playing against the animated versions of the people that created the game, we get "old time" characters with names like Dinky, Crazy Jack, and Fairbanks. Besides, you can play against a dog in the original...

The actual game play seems to be almost exactly the same as the original. Each character gets a side of the screen, with your deck spaced out over the bottom portion. Characters pose next to their card of decks, suspiciously inside of their own picture frame. Every now and then they will say some whimsical comment just like in the original, but this time most of them have their own voice actors playing the part. Usually this is a good thing, but in this case the voices do nothing but broadcast just how bad the comments they say are. To top it off, a lot of the voice actors they got don't sound quite like the characters are suppose to.

In the end, this game may not have been a great addition to your computer game collection when it was released in 1993, but if you are in any way a Sierra fan, you will want to pick this one up, even if it's just for nostalgia purposes. Even if Roger doesn't sound like Roger, it still feels good turning him into the Old Maid.

By: Faeran