Ace of Space Review - Shuffle, Deal, Draw

You've hunted them across the West and finally found your target in the town of Sweet Haven, Arizona. The necromancer who destroyed your life and the assortment of evil beings and beasts that surround him have made their base here. Your time for vengeance is nigh. You steel yourself for what's to come. You've gambled your way across this country, but the stakes are the highest they've ever been. You pray the dealer throws luck your way. Now you need to draw the right cards. Welcome to Ace of Spades.

Shuffle

Ace of Spades is a solo (but can be played cooperatively) card game that uses a regular deck of cards to draw poker hands to deal damage against a chain of enemies, before facing off against the final boss.

A game of Ace of Spades starts with you creating your enemy deck. There are 12 levels of enemies to fight through, and each has 4 different enemies that are randomised and then placed in the deck in descending order of level from Lord Overkill (the final boss), then 10 to 1, and a final starting enemy on top. Most of the enemies you face will have a steadily increasing health stat, but some also have special rules that make it more difficult, and some grant you one-time or permanent abilities for defeating them.

You then have to blast your way through this deck of enemies using poker hands. You have a certain number of draws to beat each enemy, and each hand you draw consists of 8 cards, from which you play 5. This allows you to carry over 3 cards from draw to draw, possibly playing for a higher scoring hand to deal more damage, or you can just play the best you have each turn to deal damage as quickly as possible.

You also have a discard and draw option instead of playing a hand of cards, but you only get a few of these, and if you use them all, you're committed to only using the cards in your remaining hands for damage.

Draw!

App-controlled solo games have become more and more popular recently, adventure games with massive boxes of components and complex rules that, while are usually a joy to play once you get into them, it was super refreshing to review a game that had minimal components and straightforward rules. I also love how the regular deck and poker hands are tied into the luck of the draw. If you draw the right hands, you can blast your way through all the enemy levels, but if luck decides to screw you, each hand becomes a challenging gamble as to stick or redraw.

Some enemies have restrictions, the villains at levels 2, 5, and 8. The rest just have different art, and gain you different abilities as you play. There are also 4 difficulty levels for the final boss. But honestly, you could play against the same enemies again and again, and the variety of the poker draws is enough to give it the variety it needs.  The co-op play sees players sharing a core hand of 3 cards on the table, and 5 in each hand, which adds complexity and keeps it fun and entirely within theme.

What Are Our Final Thoughts On Ace of Spades?

Ace of Spades is a fun little game, entirely draw-dependent as a game based on poker should be. The theme is handled very well, tied into the mechanics, components, and art. There's enough variety through the draw mechanic, but 4 flavors of enemies at each level and 4 final boss difficulties keep it fresh through multiple playthroughs.

The copy of Ace of Spades used to produce this review was provided by Devir.