![]() Then they took on the town’s biggest game, the World Series of Poker, and walked away with more than $3.5 million. Taking Vegas for millions, Finkel’s squad of brainy gamers became the biggest players in town. Once transformed, this young shark stormed poker rooms from the underground clubs of New York City to the high-stakes tables online, until he landed on the largest card-counting blackjack team in the country. ![]() ![]() Magic exploded from nerdy obsession to mainstream mania and made the teenage Finkel an ultracool world champion. The ultimate bully-magnet, Finkel grew up heckled and hazed until destiny came in the form of a trading-card game called Magic: The Gathering. Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids is his amazing true story: the jaw-dropping, zero-to-hero chronicle of a fat, friendless boy from New Jersey who found his edge in a game of cards–and turned it into a fortune. And whatever you do, don’t sit down across a gaming table from Jon Finkel, better known as Jonny Magic. An even nicer touch is that Nerial steeps the game in history as the Comte and Eugene run into the likes of Voltaire and Casanova though it’s not entirely accurate.If you think a gang of real-life geeks can’t take on the world and win big. Aside from the minigame aspect of the gameplay, everything has a way of sucking players into the conspiracy. All of that is bulwarked by visuals that look like storybook illustrations. Players learn the secrets behind the Comte and his particular interest in Eugene. THE FLAWSThat’s a shame because the gameplay isn’t as sharp as the narrative, which is full of court intrigue and backstabbing. “Card Shark” is full of twists and turns as players con their way to victory at card games. Throw in time limits during the con and it’s a recipe for frustration. What makes matters worse is that the controls don’t feel responsive or intuitive on the Nintendo Switch. It will take dozens of practice hands before players memorize the signals for card suits. At times, the Comte mentions tricks I’ve never heard of before and I just felt lost in the learning process.Īll of this makes the “Card Shark” learning curve steep. That freedom is great for some games, but when you need to teach players the language of card tricks, that prevents the game from hammering home concepts, cementing players’ mastery and building on those techniques. “Card Shark” throws a lot at players and it’s done in a haphazard fashion partly because players can pick from several locales through the campaign. At the worst, it inundates players with a slew of multistep techniques and jargon. Players will have to pour wine while also peeking at an opponent’s hand. At the very least, the techniques require an ability to multitask. It’s a nice setup, but the biggest problem with the project is that the developers at Nerial do a bad job of teaching players the concepts. “Card Shark” attempts to weave the gameplay and the story as the Comte teaches Eugene the cons, and they pursue the truth behind the “12 Bottles of Milk” incident. The big benefit of video games, though, is that players don’t need the preternatural dexterity to perform the techniques. THE MAGIC SLEIGHT OF HANDWhat players are doing is essentially learning the basics of card-based magic tricks. Players will need to know how to shuffle the cards deceptively and injog the correct sequences in “Card Shark.” (Devolver Digital) ![]() The longer it takes, the angrier an opponent gets and it can lead to calls of cheating and eventually death. Other times they have to stack the deck for the Comte. Sometimes players have to remember and signal the right suit and face card. All of this is done under some time pressure. They’re portrayed as minigames that require players to be perceptive and count cards. It’s almost like an Enlightenment-era “Paper Moon.”Īs Eugene, players learn 28 techniques (not all of them focus on cards) that help them through several trials and tribulations. He’s a trickster who goes on to call the boy Eugene and takes him under his wing in order to teach the youth how to cheat at cards. Although he’s dressed like a nobleman, the Comte is anything but that. The project takes place in 18th-century France and follows a mute serving boy, who ends up in the care of the Comte de Saint Germain. That makes “Card Shark” a standout in the world of video games. Dozens of games feature testosterone-fueled heroes with guns as big as their muscles, but few projects star aristocratic con men.
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