Walking through the casinos in Las Vegas, it’s hard not to go on sensory overload with the glittering lights and plinking sounds of the slot machines. They seem, by far, the most popular games in Vegas. However, they are definitely not for me. If I’m going to play a casino game, Craps is my baby: Good odds, you get to roll dice, and it’s mostly cooperative. What’s not to love?
That being said, it’s hard not to see the allure of the flashing lights on the slot machines and the promised riches. And that’s where today’s review of Lucky Jack comes in. Published by Fox Mind Games, Lucky Jack channels the spirit of the One Armed Bandit slot machine and distill it down to a quick playing card game.
Gameplay Overview:
The goal in Lucky Bandit is to have the most points after 3 or 5 rounds. At the start of a round, each player is dealt out a hand of 7 cards. Each card will feature one of 7 suits, ranked in this order from lowest to highest: Lemons, Cherries, Grapes, Clover, Bells, Sevens, and a Jack.
On a player’s turn they can take one of 4 actions:
- Discard a card with a symbol matching the top card of the discard pile
- Discard a card with a higher-value symbol than the top card of the discard pile
- Discard a card with a lower value symbol than the top card of the discard file, and the draw two cards from the draw deck.
- Draw a card from the draw deck and either keep it or discard it. If you discard it, the next player can immediately take it on their turn.
The round ends when one player has only 3 or 4 matching cards in their hand. They gain points based on what suit they have, from 1,000 for 3 lemons up to 10,000 for 4 jacks. After 3 rounds (or 5 if the players choose), the player with the most points wins.
Game Experience:
In a time where trick-taking, climbing, and shedding games are selling like flapjacks, Lucky Jack has all the makings of a great card game. The goal is to reduce your hand to just a set of 3 or 4 matching cards. So on your turn, you, ideally, discard a card you don’t need. And I actually really like the discard mechanic.
If you’ve got an equal or higher-value card, you just dump it and move on. If you have a lower value, you have to draw two cards into your hand. So it creates interesting decision points of when to drop a card to just discard and when to get rid of your low-value cards. If you need to fish for that 3rd or 4th card, the best way to do it is with a low-value card. There is the 4th option, of just drawing a card, but that rarely seems like a better option because it only gives you one card to fish from, and also risks giving a card your opponent needs to them. And in our plays, new players were somewhat confused by that 4th option as it seemed out of place with the rest of the rules.
However, the game has a core problem that it’s just too random right from the start. If you draw a hand with three of a kind, all you have to do is dump 4 cards and you are good. If you happened to get 4 of a kind, you are almost guaranteed to win the round as you only have to shed 3 cards. For everyone else though, it’s a crap shoot if you’ll ever get that 3rd card. It can be an exercise in frustration for you to have to be constantly digging for cards while your opponent just needs to drop a few cards to win.
I really wish there was some kind of draw mechanic from the discard pile. That way if someone discarded a card you need, you could snatch it up, giving you a much-needed option to get a card. Now, the game does have something like that, if the player before you draws a single card and immediately discards it, you can then take it. But that doesn’t really happen often enough and it’s still pretty restrictive.
To be honest, Lucky Jack just doesn’t feel thoroughly playtested. While I can appreciate the casual nature of the gameplay, the actions feel a little too restrictive given how much a strong opening hand can affect the course of the round. And the fact that the rulebook doesn’t even include a tiebreaker rule makes me think this card game could have used more time in development.
Final Thoughts:
I loved the time of Lucky Jack and thought the slot machine art was a nice touch. The hierarchy of symbols was an interesting idea, and I appreciated how they were even on the cards to help with learning. But the game clearly needed more playtesting and as it stands, Lucky Jack is just an OK game. I’d be happy to try a second edition at some point as, with more development, this could be a pretty fun game.
Final Score: 2 Stars – A quick-playing card game that has the potential to be fun, but isn’t quite there yet.
Hits:
• Cute slot machine art
• Easy to learn gameplay with quick rounds
Misses:
• A strong opening hand makes winning a lot easier.
• No tiebreaker
• Too much randomness
