Super Blackjack Battle 2 Turbo Edition – The Card Warriors

 Developer: Stage Clear Studios
Publisher: Headup Games

Developed by the Spanish studio Stage Clear and published by Headup Games, Super Blackjack Battle 2 Turbo Edition – The Card Warriors or simply SBB2T is a – guess what? – blackjack game that takes a lot of inspiration on the eternal classic Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. To participate in this world tournament of blackjack you will choose your champion and fight other participants in tables all around the globe. But don’t expect to use Hadoukens or similar techniques: your weapons here are a good strategy and luck – a lot of it!

What do you do?

SBB2T is a blackjack game and your objective is to get more money than your opponents at the end of ten rounds. Players on the table start the match with $1000. At the beginning of each round, you have two cards in hand and your goal is to sum 21 (or be the closest to this number) by buying more cards. If the sum of your cards exceeds 21, you lose the money. If you’re closer to 21 than the dealer, you receive the value, increasing your total money. After 10 matches, you will face the organizer of this tournament.

 What is Good?

• Graphics: Super Blackjack Battle 2 Turbo Edition – The Card Warriors has some beautiful and colorful old-school levels that are well detailed. Characters have few but nice animations. The cut scenes in the game are also very good (the initial one, in which Mark imitates 1990’s Hadouken animation was the best!). The background images didn’t receive this same attention but overall I was pretty happy with how it turned out.
• Tribute to Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo: SBB2T is a clear tribute to Capcom’s title. Graphics and animations, the world map, the title screen… everything smells like the fighting game – even the cut scenes at the end. A delightful homage to the fighting game.
• Sound: The game presents some good songs which also refer to 90’s games. They help to build a good atmosphere to each one of its 12 stages, especially when you enter the final 3 rounds of a match and the music accelerates, rising the anxiety feeling (and increasing my chances of trying something really stupid, like risking an all-in).
• Characters: SBB2T has twelve different characters for you to play with (two are initially blocked), each one with a different ending in solo mode.
• Game modes: SBB2T has three gaming modes: Single Player Combat, which works as the story mode, where you pick up a player travels the world challenging other characters in the tournament, Simply Blackjack, a mode of pure and simple blackjack, and Party Mode, the local-only multiplayer mode in which up to four players can fight to see who the best player on the couch is.

Mixed Feelings

• Tutorial: Event though blackjack is a very common game, I missed a tutorial to explain all the nuances of the game: It took me some time to figure out what was an Insurance play and other different moves.
• Bad luck: As any card game, blackjack isn’t all about strategy: luck (or the lack of it) plays a major role in the gameplay. I lost the count of how many times a got a blackjack (my two initial cards summed 21) and the dealer bought cards summing 21 too, annulling my victory in that round. Was it really bad luck or the game that didn’t want me to win? It’s especially annoying since there are two achievements related to winning a match without losing any rounds: I felt like I was being cheated.
• Not for children: I feel the need to point that some of the scenarios have guns and drug references. But as blackjack is a game for grown-ups, your children are not going to play it, right? Right?

What is Bad?

• Story: Even though some characters have interactions between matches, trading some phrases or provocations, there’s nothing about their story and interactions before the tournament. It feels like a missed opportunity to fully explore the interesting characters present in the game.
• No online multiplayer: Present in the Steam version of the game, the online multiplayer wasn’t included in Xbox version. It’s sad especially for those who have no friends around to play with.

Super Blackjack Battle 2 Turbo Edition – The Card Warriors [Score: 69/100]: If you are looking for a good game of blackjack, look no further! With beautiful graphics and good sound, it pays a good-humored tribute to the classic fighting game. Remember to invite lady luck for a drink tonight: you’ll depend on her mood to stand a chance against the kings of the table in this game.