Stacked – Pocket Poker Perfection for PSP

Stacked – Pocket Poker Perfection for PSP

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

Put your hands up if you want to be a real man. Now you must know that it won’t be an easy path (especially if your female) and there are many many things that a real man needs to be able to master in this world. Some of them you can only achieve through ‘hands on’ experience e.g. the art of making love to a beautiful woman or of successfully shotgunning a beer without spillage or pukage. Others are metaphysical realms of soul searching, spiritual enlightenment and football appreciation. Many of these still require life experience or years of training, but there are a few that can be picked up and learnt to a fair degree using the wonderful slab of pocket sized joy, which is also known as a Sony PSP, and Texas Hold Em Poker is amazingly enough one of these.
Yes, if you want to emulate James Bond in Casino Royale (and I don’t mean the bit where he gets his bollocks whipped with a knotted rope!?) or you just want to learn the game without losing the contents of your bank account to your smirking mates, then basically - you need Stacked… This is all the Hold Em Phenomenon Poker you need wrapped up in a sexy, accessible package that will train you in the basics, give you some professional tips and let you refine your strategy against virtual opponents of varying skills. Then if you’ve got the taste for it, you can wifi play Poker over the internet, or wirelessly against other PSP owning pals without ever having to pick up a real card. One word of caution though – Stacked is highly addictive, so if you’re investing in this quality Poker offering, be prepared to kiss goodbye to doing much else. Stacked fits the PSP beautifully, the fact you can pause and power down at any time, only to immediately jump back into the action at the flick of switch later is great for grabbing a quick Poker fix day or night.
The graphics are great, you can design your Poker playing alter ego in a similar way to how you make a player for say Tiger Woods PGA… Just probably a bit fatter, balder and chavy if you’re looking for Poker realism or smooth, cool and sophisticated if you’re living in a dream world where playing cards for money is a valid career – whatever, the choice is yours...
Stacked by name and ‘stacked with options’ by nature, MTV games have teamed up with blonde Poker master Daniel Negreanu (2004 ESPN Player of the Year, World Poker Tour Player of the Year) to deliver this Poker fest of life eating proportions. As you progress through the game's career mode, you’ll get the chance to apply Dan's teachings to overcome some of poker's most renowned stars, including Josh Arieh, Jennifer Harman, Erick Lindgren, Carlos Mortenson, Evelyn Ng and David Williams. The Poki Artificial Intelligence system utilized in Stacked adapts its tactics in real-time to exploit the user's playing style, detecting tendencies and deploying appropriate counter-strategies to deliver a challenging and authentic experience. Basically, you won’t find a finer Poker game on any format at the moment.

Darkmatters rating system (out of 5):

Overall öööö (Pokermon - got to catch em all, or lose all your cash etc)

Darkmatters: H O M E