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| | Publisher: Freeverse  Genre: Board & Card | | Mac OS X: Any Version Mac OS Classic: Mac OS 8.6
CPU: Any CPU RAM: 20 MB Hard Disk: 60 MB |
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Deal already Once you got the look you want down, it's time to cut the deck and deal everyone a hand. For a card game, Crazy Eights has the easiest learning curve in the world. Basically, if you've played UNO, you've played Crazy Eights. All eights are wild, which players can use to change the suit, jacks skip a turn, deuces force players to draw two cards, four, six or eight depending on how many have been used consecutively and the dreaded Queen of Spades forces a five card draw. The way to win is to earn the lowest score after the first player reaches a certain number of points. Of course, if you still can't figure out the game, fret not. There's an in-game tutor that tells you what cards to play during your game. It's not much help for figuring out special draw and skip cards if you're not aware of them in the first place, but you can always read the help me file and after playing five or six hands, you've probably already figured it out. There's also an interesting telepathy feature for the less strategic, which actually allows you to read the minds of your opponents. By moving the cursor over their heads, a little thought bubble appears that read things like "Man, I need to draw a card" or "Ace of Spades. Yes. Definitely." giving you the upper hand (no pun intended) if you've got no strategy of your own. All of the components and rules of the game can be changed to meet almost anybody's needs. Game ending point levels can be changed to 100, 200, 300 and 500 points or you can just play a certain number of hands. Players can also change the scoring method and rules for drawing cards if there's no playable card in their hand. There's even a preference for rules for the starting card and how to recycle the empty draw deck for the extreme obsessive compulsive who has to set up a game according to his rules. You know who you are. Game play is relatively fast with computerized characters throwing cards on the table just as fast you. Another player's spontaneous comment occasionally interrupts the pace, but it still moves nicely since it's such a low maintenance, low-memory desktop game. This game also measures your stats down to the percentage of games you've won (mine's slowly reaching above one percent) and keeps a scorecard for the overall series. Probably the game's best feature is the easy, accessible online games, which cost nothing extra to play and is as simple as picking a user name and typing in your password twice. The first encounter with the lobby requires a quick graphic download, which might take more than one attempt on a phone modem. But once you're passed all that, it's only a matter of finding three more friends and an empty room in which to play. Unfortunately, the few times I've logged on to play a game of Crazy Eights, there were plenty of Bridge, Hearts and Spades players, but I was the only Crazy Eights player. So if you're looking for human competitors, it will take longer than usual. Once the game catches on, I'm sure plenty of Crazy Eights players will find some time to deal out some online hands. And eventually, when some players popped in the player menu with their purple crown icon, the game ran just as fast as the solo version on my iMac phone modem. Go crazy 3D Crazy Eights is a great, cheap game that serves as a great time wasting desktop activity whether you're passing time at the office or waiting to get past an AOL busy signal. The wide variety of graphics and game play options allow you to tailor a round of cards to your tastes and preferences. While some of the character's voices get repetitive and annoying fast, the rapid game pace and network game option make it addictive, fun to play and free of performance frustrations.In Conclusion ... Buying an alternative for your jigsaw puzzle may not sound like a solid investment when compared to a new word processing program or OS upgrade. But it's worth the sticker price if you've grown tired of the usual "video games for the easily amused."The people who drink from the water cooler will thank you. Pros: • Wide, fun variety of characters and ambiance settings
• Game pace is fast and quick
• Practically runs on any Mac OS
• Makes for a great time wasterCons • Repetitive, occasionally annoying, voices
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