Cribbage

The traditional game of Cribbage has been brought to the world of the mobile phone market in the imaginatively titled, Cribbage!

Now don’t let the lack of creativity in the name deter you, in fact it’s quite refreshing seeing a game have a familiar title for once – at least you know what you’re getting is exactly what it should be. Needless to say, this traditional card and pin game is sympathetically recreated for your mobile phone in pretty good detail. The cards are easy to see despite their small size and the split screen appearance of the card and the score table is very straight forward to navigate.

However, the rules for this game are quite intricate and very complicated – but not impossible to get to grips with. The basic idea is to be the first to score 121 through playing your cards right against your opponents. Of course there is much more to this game too, such as being able to score the points yourself or allowing it to do it for you. For me personally, as a novice I liked the computer do the scoring for me as otherwise I spent a lot of time being called a ‘muggins’ for putting my pins in the wrong position – which adds to the overall authenticity and attention to detail paid by the designers.

Another attention to detail which has been offered is the appearance of the cards and the table. The animations are quite smooth although quite basic and the controls are very simple. It’s as though this game is probably aimed at the more mature player. You can move your view of the scoreboard and your softkey will give you the option to deal and the OK key will allow you to discard or play your selected card.

You can play against three computer opponents in this tricky game. When playing against one or two opponents you will have race them to the finish. However, when playing against three opponents, it ends up being two versus two in a friendly competition.

The problem I have had with this game is that the game did freeze a little and would need to be prompted by going to the continue section where it would refresh and pick up where it left off. Other than that, the game is fairly flawless and the glitch I experienced may have only been down to it not being truly compatible with my Sony Ericsson C905. As this is a basic card game that is represented in a reasonable fashion I can’t really detract from the very basic but smooth graphics by being too harsh. Fundamentally, if you enjoy cribbage then this is certainly the game for you. Although you won’t get the same interaction nor cream tea and biscuits which you may do with your other cribbage associates, it will certainly keep you sharp and on the ball until your next game.

Rating 82%

Positives

Very authentic

Realistic game play

A nice alternative to other card games

11 card backs

Option to switch animation on or off

Manual or automatic scoring

Negatives

Graphics and controls could be improved

Glitch and froze on my phone but only needed a couple of key presses to correct

Being called a muggings!