Vegas Stakes is one of my favorite games so it’s seems weird
I didn’t know about the predecessor until a few years back even though Vegas Dream was
released for the NES back in 1988. At this point it's been 25 years if 8-bit gambling goodness.
The concept of Vegas dream is pretty simple, you’re in Vegas
to win money. You encounter people and events, but all of it is to your
ultimate goal of getting as rich as possible at the casino’s expense.
Controls
Controls are simple and intuitive, I didn’t notice a lag or
delay but it’s not the sort of game you’d notice it in anyway.
Graphics
It doesn’t look great and it doesn’t look horrible. They’re
pretty standard NES level graphics, though given that’s there’s very little
movement taking place in the game they could probably look a lot better. Overall
they don’t really add anything to the game and they don’t really take anything
away from it either.
Sound
There’s not a lot for random sounds or ambient noise, there
are some minor sounds when you make menu selections and when you win at a slot
machine, but most of the sounds in the game is in the form of musical themes.
Each game has its own theme song and things like the news cast and the marriage
have their own individual melodies as well. The music isn’t fantastic but it
isn’t bad either. My biggest complaint it that it over uses the high tones a
bit.
Gameplay
You’re not going to make your fortune in Vegas by simply
standing around hoping the $700 your start off with is going to attract some
companions into your pocket, so
naturally the gameplay is largely made up of playing gambling games. You have 4 choices on your road to fortune,
Blackjack, Roulette, Slots and Keno. Once you select a game you’re presented
with a dealer/game attendant who seems to randomly be a man with a square hair
cut or a woman with a bob, except in Keno which is always the same girl.
Blackjack plays like any digital Blackjack game I’ve ever
played. Place a bet trying to get 21 failing that just beat the dealer’s
hand. It uses standard rules and
options, double downs, splits, and insurance. I made most of my fortune in the
game making ridiculous black jack bets so I’d say they odds are pretty in your
favor, but there’s plenty of times I hit a 5 game losing streak so it doesn’t
baby you either.
Roulette is roulette. Pick a number, a group of numbers, or
a color and hope for the best. Roulette
doesn’t do you any favors no matter which bet I made I always seemed to be
picking the wrong thing. In the session I played for this review I tried maybe
15 bets of varying types and not a one of them paid. As in real life though, if
you’re lucky Roulette really pays off.
Slots come in 2 flavors Pot-O-Gold and Jack Pot Bar.
Pot-O-Gold comes in multiple Denominations ranging from $1 a line to $100 a
line. You can bet on one two or three lines that pay left to right, no
diagonals or the other crazy stuff we’re used to now. Seems to have pretty normal slot machine odds,
I didn’t win a million and I didn’t lose my shirt either. Jack Pot bar only has
one pay line, right in the center which you can make a $1, $5, $25, $50 or $100
bet on. Odds aren’t as good as on the Pot-O-Gold machines, but when you do win
it pays well.
Unlike the other games, keno is always hosted by a girl who
looks suspiciously similar to Fuijiko from Lupin III. Pseudo Fujiko takes the bet you choose (your
select it yourself so it can be in any amount from $1 up) on the amount of numbers you choose from
1-15. You get paid based on the quantity of numbers you hit out of the numbers
you selected, IE. 1/1 is a winner, 2/15
is not.
If navigating the waters of Vegas gambling isn’t enough, you
also have to deal the denizens of The Hal Palace Casino in a variety of
interactions. Sometimes is in the form
of hotel staff informing you you’ve got
a phone call or a visitor which can result in big pay offs, or more often than
not (at least in my case) a fall down the stairs or a chandelier to the head. In fact in my game I feel down the stairs at
least 5 times, several times because of the mysterious phone call and once due
to an “accident” at the bar where it’s heavily implied my character got drunk
and fell down the stairs. Injuries while hilarious are $200 a pop for hospital
bills so it can add up pretty quickly, but often times the payoff is $5000, so it’s worth the gamble
if you’re far enough into the game where a $200 loss isn’t going to bankrupt
you.
Another common
interaction is Marriage. Mr.James (Ms. Sophie if you’re playing a male) will
decide he’s in love with you and wants to marry you after a single date in the
hotel bar. If you agree to his proposal it can either result in a con where he
takes $200 from you or a $5000 wedding gift from the hotel. Also interestingly
even after you’re married Mr. James will date and marry you again in a
seemingly endless loop. We got married 4 times in my game and only once was conned
obviously YMMV.
Naturally, as with any trip to Vegas you risk ending up
completely penniless. If that happens
you get one last chance spin on the Jack Pot Bar Slot. If you win some cash you
get to keep gambling. If you don’t it’s game over and you’re back at the airport
on your way back to wherever it is you came from shamed and sad. If your luck in gambling holds up and you don’t get conned
too many times you’ll eventually hit $10million, which is the winning point for
the game. When you win you get a small ending scene which shows you being a
jerk to what we can assume are your servants at your mansion before heading out
to a show. Because that’s the ultimate Vegas dream, finding people poorer than
you to belittle!
Winning is actually
pretty difficult to do in one sitting unless you’re A) insanely lucky or B)
playing via emulator and using save states. So there’s a handy password feature you can
use after each big win to make sure you’re never totally at the mercy of mere
luck or in case you don’t feel like doing
8 bit gambling for endless hours.
Unfortunately, The passwords are 26 characters longs consisting of numbers,
letters and symbols, so copy everything down carefully and it’s very easy to get one character wrong
and lose your hours of masterful blackjack playing forever.
Conclusion
Vegas Dream is nowhere near as fun as its much beloved (by
me) sequel, Vegas Stakes. But it is decent NES gambling goodness. The random
interactions really give it a fun twist as opposed to playing something like
Caesars palace, but there are definitely things that could have made it a
better game. I personally would have really liked to have seen a Poker
option. I think if I were rating this back in 1988 when it were new I’d have
probably given it a 3 or 4 but by today’s standards I give it a 2. It’s fun,
it’s playable, but after you’re over the amusement of falling down the stairs
and entering sham marriages, there are better options for gambling games out
there.
~Stephanie
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