70/100, my baseline rating. This game is exactly what it says on the tin. (Insert the Arrested Development "I don't know what I expected" meme here, if you like.) If you watch the ad video, you will know exactly what to expect. The only notable differences: the video appears to have non-randomized dealing (presumably in order to show viewers examples of what happens when winning, breaking even, and losing) but actual gameplay is randomized like one would expect; also, you start with 5000 chips, not 6000.
If you're reading reviews on this game, I assume you've already seen the price and watched the ad video. What follows is the most thorough list of things I can think to mention that aren't readily apparent from the video. Because I gave the game a thumbs up, I'll list the cons before the pros.
Cons, in decreasing order of severity:
* No multiplayer/online play. It turns out Blackjack gets pretty boring pretty fast if you're playing 1-on-1 against the computer.
* Mousing over a face-up card does not cause it to be displayed on top of the other cards. If you really liked the illustration you briefly saw on the dealer's face-up card, or on any card other than the most recent card dealt to you, you'll have to end the current game and visit the gallery in order to, ah, admire it. Just showing a magnified version of any face-up card when mousing over it would've elevated this game. (This is more of a missed opportunity than a con, I guess, but isn't the point of a game like this to enjoy looking at the pictures as you play?)
* No intimate animations, or unlockables other than the pictures used on the card fronts. On the off-chance that you were expecting or hoping for that, sorry, it's not here.
* There's no in-game explanation of the controls or procedures, and no tutorial on how to play blackjack or how to win at blackjack. If you're totally new to blackjack, this is not the place to start. (Thankfully, the controls are very simple and intuitive; it's a mouse-only game with clearly labeled buttons. The ad video also helpfully shows how to play, because the mouse cursor's visible.)
* Somewhat harsh casino rules. A dealer blackjack is an automatic loss, for example. C'mon, at least let me try for a chop! We're not playing for real money! (You are allowed to buy insurance, and the game even explains what that means in detail.)
* Come to think of it, literally any game-rules-altering or even cosmetic-altering settings or options would have been nice.
* Let's talk about the elephant in the room. There is a leaderboard, which is... confusing, honestly. The top two high scores it displayed to me were extreme negative numbers probably obtained via integer overflow shenanigans, and the rest of the scores on the list were zero (including me -- eventually I got bored and started going all in every hand until a loss). Somehow, I came in both sixth and eleventh at the same time. So... yeah... (a) the leaderboard seems broken, or at least inscrutable, and (b) seriously *why* is there a leaderboard? How could a leaderboard even work meaningfully in a game that lets you restart with chips as often as you like, and go all-in every hand until you lose? "Hey look, I got third place on this random number generator." How can a leaderboard function in a game that has you just continue playing until you run out of chips? (There's a reason all the coherent scores were zero...) Why is "online leaderboards" (plural?!) a selling point of this game, important enough to be mentioned in its summary description? The existence of the leaderboard will live rent-free in my head long after I've forgotten every other aspect of this game.
Pros:
* The program runs smoothly and doesn't use significant resources according to Task Manager. I didn't bother to check the game specs, but I'm pretty sure this could run on a potato.
* The game doesn't try to cheat, either on your behalf or against you; so far as I can tell, the shuffles are genuinely random. (The number of card/board games programmed to cheat boggles the mind. Early versions of Monopoly and Risk were huge offenders; various microtransaction casinos are the worst... anyway.)
* YOU CAN COUNT CARDS. The game shows you when a shuffle occurs. If you're new to counting and want to practice at a basic level in a laid-back environment, this will work.
* The card game rules are implemented correctly. You're allowed to split when you're supposed to be allowed to split, for example, and the bet for a split is processed correctly. (Oh, and the game does explain what Split means.)
* There are fifty-two pictures to collect (possibly more; I didn't bother to grind for Easter eggs). They're all very generic unmemorable awkwardly-cropped topless-anime-woman stuff, but if you value quantity, there is at least quantity. Having not actually watched the ad video until writing this review, I had assumed only the face cards would be, ah, decorated, but nope, it's every card.
* The industry-standard gallery feature lets you view that quantity without having to replay the game. I only mention this because it would have been hilariously extra-terrible for that feature to be missing in this game. Like, that alone would have changed my thumbs up to a thumbs down, just on principle -- imagine having a favorite picture, like the four of hearts or whatever, and having to grind blackjack until it shows up (and potentially only briefly before getting covered by another card).
* The music is tolerable enough, has an old-timey casino feel, and easily fades into the background.
Notes (you might consider these Pros or Cons):
* The sound effects are mostly ordinary and easily ignored, but the crowd cheering (when you go all in or win) or gasp-wincing (when you lose) is a bit odd. There's no visuals indicating an audience, and no reason I can fathom why you'd want there to be one (this isn't Guitar Hero). The oddest sound effect is on a win: you simultaneously get crowd applause, a standard "money gained" type sound effect, and a random "anime girl making an intimate noise" sound.
* Whenever the deck shuffles, it spreads the deck face-down momentarily, and a couple of the cards glow red. I didn't bother to figure out what that's supposed to communicate. Maybe it's showing how far the deck is dealt until a reshuffle occurs?
* I didn't notice any Easter eggs or puns, unless the glowing red thing noted above qualifies. A real missed opportunity for lazy puns, if you're into that sort of thing: the awkwardly-cropped card fronts don't quite show full frontal; the card back is generic when it could've been an illustration of a woman's back; there's no attempt to work in a "Blackjack Off" setting; etc, etc. The game plays completely straight, with no attempts at humor, puerile or otherwise.
