PictureBook Games: The Royal Bluff

Genre: Card Game / Board Game

Players: 1-4 Competitive (Local Wireless), Download Play Stupported

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Review:

The Royal Bluff is a family-friendly game that combines Card Game and Board Game elements released on the Nintendo DSi via the DSiWare service in 2009 and then grandfathered into the Nintendo 3DS eShop when that system was released. However, while Card Game and Board Game elements are major components of this game, the core gameplay element at play here is bluffing – trying to mislead opponents about your goals while also trying to deduce theirs.

Players begin every game with two secretly-assigned colors out of five possible colors (purple, orange, yellow, green, and aqua), with their primary aim being to end the game with both of those colors on the board having chips placed on them with as great a gap between them as possible – having one of your colors with 0 on it won’t count, but if you can somehow manage to get one color to have one or two chips on it and the other stack as many as possible, you’ll be well-situated to score a lot of points. And if you can get any stack to a full ten chips, you’ll earn a bonus and prematurely conclude the game to tally the score immediately.

However, it’s not so simple, because other players will be watching for this, and players can score points not only through the method I just described, but also by correctly guessing what another player’s assigned colors are. As such, you won’t just want to add to the color that benefits you, but spread things around somewhat so it isn’t obvious what your true goal is. Do this well enough and you can even get extra points for it – tricking opponents into guessing your colors wrong and you get a bonus. However, you have to be careful spreading your chips around, as you may inadvertently help an opponent build up their pile when you’re just trying to bluff.

Players influence the chips on each color through cards they draw each turn, ranging from 1-3 and -1 through -3. What’s more, each turn you’re asked if you want to guess at an opponent’s color, and right or wrong you’re only allowed two of these guesses per match. In addition, there are additional special cards you can get in-between matches that you can play at any time with effects like lowering the chips of the biggest pile or raising the number of chips on the smallest pile.

Overall, this is a pretty solid foundation for a bluffing game, one that’s easy enough to learn, but still provides enough variety to keep things interesting. In fact, I would say that this game’s biggest problem comes down to the fundamentals of what this game is – a guessing game. As such, it’s not a game that’s very satisfying to play against AI opponents. This is a game you’ll really want to play with friends. Thankfully, The Royal Bluff makes it fairly simple to do so, supporting Download Play for its multiplayer.

And while the presentation here isn’t really the point, I will note that this game does have a somewhat distinctive look to it, which combines 2D images for its chips, cards, and tables, with some monochrome Victorian-style sketch art for its characters, which are a mix of classy men and women, and anthropomorphized animals dressed like classy men and women, all backed by a soundtrack that reminded me of lounge music. It’s silly, but in a way that works for the game. Really, the only issue I think I have with this presentation is that all the characters have brief voice clips when declaring actions, and some of those voices seem out-of-place and somewhat poorly-acted.

If you’re the sort of person who enjoys playing multiplayer Nintendo 3DS games with your friends, and particularly if your group also likes Board and Card Games, PictureBook Games: The Royal Bluff may well be worth adding to your collection, especially with its low $5 price tag. It’s relatively easy to learn, but presents some good core gameplay to make for a really fun bluffing game despite its simplicity. However, if you don’t have others to play with, this game may be less appealing to you. Bluffing an AI just isn’t as fun.

tl;dr – The Royal Bluff is a family-friendly game that combines Card Game and Board Game elements in a way that makes for a solid game about bluffing that’s easy to learn but well-crafted enough to keep things interesting… but mostly only if you have others to play with, as bluffing games with AI opponents are rarely as rewarding as playing against your friends. However, with the game’s $5 price tag and support for download play, this game tries its best to make playing with others as easy as possible. If you have friends to throw down with who also own a Nintendo 3DS, this will be a good choice for you.

Grade: B-

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