This week on XBLA in Brief, we check out Lost Cities. For a game about exciting adventures and expeditions, it sure plays an awful lot like solitaire. Competitive solitaire. And guess what: it's actually really, really fun. Who knew? Check out the video above and learn why card and board game fans should definitely try Lost Cities.
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1. IT IS NOT SOLITAIRE. Period. If you want to describe it, it's sort of a card version of Rack-O. Stop listening to Tycho on Penny Arcade, whom I suggest you not listen to regarding casual games.
2. There's a TON of strategy. Playing newbs online, they tend to:
a. play everything - can't do that b. discard cards I can use - can't do that c. not pick up discarded cards - can't do that
3. It's not boring, especially if you play the original card game. It's quite addictive, especially since it's fast-paced.
It is a bit like solitaire, in that it has cards. It is a really good game though and deep, despite the simple rules. Basically more people should buy it because at the moment only people who know the actual card game seem to be playing online - that's my excuse for being repeatedly beaten anyway.
My wife bought the card game for us for Xmas and we've had a lot of fun with it. I downloaded it from XBLA yesterday and I have to ask why are the cards so freak'n small on the screen? There's a lot of dead space on the screen. Why not give it a presentation like Uno or something? Plus, the artwork on the real cards looks so much better than the XBLA version.
