Top Hits: Blackjack
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| Top Hits: Blackjack

Just how much of any card game is down to luck or skill depends on who you ask.

For those who regularly pack their wallets with winnings after a trip to the casino, success is proudly attributed to pure hard graft. Knowing when to play on and when to cut your losses and leave is the difference between winning and losing.

Those who find victories hard to come by, however, have a rather different story to tell, putting such games – Blackjack in particular – down to pure luck. Or, indeed, a total lack of it.

A quick play of Top Hits: Blackjack (the kind of does-what-it-says-on-the-tin card compendium we're all accustomed to on mobile by now) suggests the losers may well have a point.

Here's a game that's concerned with little else but card counting. Card counting and, well, did I mention luck?

By the book

This mobile variant serves up little else but the game of Blackjack – also known as Twenty-one or Pontoon – where the sole goal is trying to make your cards add up to 21.

Extra Live's adaptation follows the accepted rules fairly explicitly, with the dealer doling out an initial two cards and then presenting you with the option of sticking or twisting – taking on board further cards, or holding what you have.

Judging just when it's best to take additional cards on board, considering they may just push you total over the edge, is the key to Blackjack.

Even if your total does land somewhere in the region of 21, there's no guarantee your rival won't have gotten closer and robbed you of your cash in the process.

It's the kind of quick-hit card game that lends itself completely to casino play, with money changing hands in the blink of an eye. But it doesn't make for an especially convincing solo act.

Indeed, it's fairly likely that anyone who has tackled a card game collection on mobile will have encountered a form of Blackjack along the way. To make it the one and only game available seems a little ill-advised.

Quick as a flash

That's mainly because games tend to be over within a matter of minutes.

While that's no problem in itself (Blackjack, as you might expect, fits that bus ride to work perfectly) the fact that there's nothing else on offer means it's hard to recommend this over the packages that come with so much more.

Extra Live has attempted to extend its playtime in fairly cursory fashion via a simple championship mode, where you move from table to table trying to win enough matches to deplete your rival of his or her entire stock of cash.

In short, you do exactly what you do in single game mode, the only difference being the betting limit and your winnings target.

With only five opponents on offer as it is, it fails to proffer anything new, making Top Hits: Blackjack as a whole one for those who like their Blackjack quick, not too slick, and with no frills attached.

Top Hits: Blackjack

Especially short and with no extra bobbins for your pennies, Top Hits: Blackjack plays an entirely solid if perfunctory game of Twenty-one
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Keith Andrew
Keith Andrew
With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font. He's also Pocket Gamer's resident football gaming expert and, thanks to his work on PG.biz, monitors the market share of all mobile OSes on a daily basis.