Neo 21 review by Paleface

First, there was the Power button. Then, there was the voice.

"Nine." "Thirteen." "Twenty." "Win!"

The voice of the almighty from the firmament? Nay, rather a slightly Australian-sounding female voice coming from your NGPC speaker as you play a glorified game of Blackjack in Neo 21. Early in the life of the NGPC there was some big push (I'll bet it was gangsters) of gambling games on the system. I haven't seen them all, thank goodness, but from what I've seen Neo 21 comes out the best by far.

And by far the coolest thing about the game is the aforementioned digitized voice of the dealer calling the action. Actually there's a voice that calls your moves, too, a kinda square-sounding male voice. And the voice calls your opponent's progress as well. So the above sequence actually goes like this, in full:

"Nine."
"Hit."
"Thirteen."
"Hit."
"Twenty."
"Stay."
"Eight."
"Seventeen."
"Bust."
"Win!"

At which point you, having successfully won a Blackjack hand, rake in the cash with a little br-rr-rr-ring! sound. Yay!

For those whose morals have kept them from any form of gambling thus far in live, a brief explanation of Blackjack might be useful. A dealer flips two people two cards each from a full deck (sans jokers). An ace in your hand can count as 1 or 10, your choice; face cards count as 10. Your goal: to get a sum higher than your opponent without going over 21. In general, if your two cards add up to 16 (or maybe 17, depending on how daring/stupid you are), you "Stay," meaning that you sit on the hand and await the outcome of your opponent's actions: if they can't beat your score, you win, if they beat it, you lose. On the other hand, if you're dealt cards amounting to less than 16 put together, you'll generally want to get "Hit," which means the dealer gives you another card. You can keep asking for a "Hit" until you go over 21, at which point you lose the opponent wins.

That's all well and good, of course, but let's face it that will get old really fast unless we spice up the action. Nudie playing cards? Well hmm how about betting on each hand instead? This is what Neo 21 allows you to do, with some additional strategy in the mix: not only can you bet on the outcome of a hand, using a set pool of money you start your gambling adventure with, you can also shake up the match by calling moves like "double down" (double the bet but you only get one more card) and "split" (if your two cards match, you can split them and play two separate Blackjack hands in that round). Also, if your opponent is dealt an ace as their first card you can call for "Insurance," which prevents them from winning with the next card (ie it can't be a 10) for a small fee.

Neo 21 handles this hot Vegas action quite well. The graphics, while hardly stunning and completely static, at least have the right colors (red, white and black cards, green table) and large, easy-to-read cards and numbers. By pressing the Option button before betting at the beginning of a round you can access a mini-dictionary of Blackjack terms as well as the bank (take out more $, don't worry about paying 'til next year...), a huge array of statistics on the game so far and a guide to the various payoffs for certain combinations of cards: in general, the more cards win with, the higher your bet is multiplied. If real life threatens to intrude, simply power off and the game saves your current winnings for use when you start up again.

And... that's really all there is to it. Mostly luck, there's just enough hint of strategy and payoff involved to keep you playing longer than you thought you would--if you play long enough you just may feel a little dirty thrill afterwards, like you were just doing something you weren't supposed to be doing. Gambling... ooo!

What keeps this game in my collection is the voice. Strangely soothing... And so clearly calls the action that, once you memorize the simple play menus, you can even play with your eyes closed--and enjoy the game just as much! Is that a good thing? Well I don't know really but it's a nice novelty. You'll find yourself nodding off pleasantly, just twiddle the stick and press the A button from time to time...

"Thirteen."
"Double down."
"Bust."

Zzzz.... yes... hit me....

Score: 5/10