Spades Free – highly addictive solitaire spades card game SIM, play human-like opponents!
by Antonio Wells
Oct 30, 2012 12:08 PM –
Install
Spades Free is the popular card game of spades trumping other suits. Brought to us by AI Factory, they have meshed their various computer AI player types with human-like qualities in the game as either opponents you play with or against. The interface is slick, animated and highly polished. If you love a game of spades and looking for a good solitaire solution, then check this review!
Price: Free, $0.99, optional In-app Purchases
Tested on: Samsung Galaxy S3
Content Rating: Medium Maturity
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Various “personalities” computer opponents from novice to advanced!
- Addictive and casual play-at-your-own-pace solitaire styles of spades!
- Very polished and animated user interface!
Cons
- Cannot leave a table or start multiple tables, forced to quit and if you care about your stats, this can negatively affect them.
- Some prompts to install other card/board games.
Features:
One of the best and stand out features of this solitaire style spades card game is the wealth of computer AI opponents you can play against. From novice, to intermediate on to advanced players, it offers various playing styles; such as those who are conservative to risk-takers. You choose your teammate as well as the opponents you would like to play against, this determines the level of play (I personally always choose expert players as “card playing” runs strong in my family’s blood). Just like playing real people, each opponent type has their strengths and weakness, they may frustrate you on not-so-smart moves, and you can use these to your advantage as strategy… or sometimes it can bite you (i.e. my teammate “Rob’s” profile is known for stealing tricks, and this happened to me often.)
Games are played until the first team to reaches 500 points. If you’re unfamiliar with scoring and rules, this is a great guide and history on the game. In a nutshell, you bid the number of “tricks” you believe you will win. Bidding goes in a clockwise rotation left of the dealer. The key object of winning is in how well you can bid to not go too far over or under as both have there consequences. If at the end of a hand you and your partner get more tricks than bid, these are called “bags”, tally 10 bags and you get penalized 100 points. When you get the number of tricks you bid, these are multiplied by 10, if you do not get them, this is known as being “set” then you loose those points in multiples of 10.
Spades by AI Factory is a bright, fast-paced, vibrant game, with fluid animations as seen in the host of other games they’ve created- we’ve recently reviewed their Chess game. Each game cross promotes the other, so from time to time you will see these pop-ups, yet not intrusive You can change game backgrounds for free, however, changing card decks costs a small fee, or get it free by downloading one of their other games. Lastly, you can see your game stats of the various tables you’ve played.
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Spades Free Gameplay 1
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Spades Free Gameplay 2
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Spades Free Gameplay 3
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Spades Free Gameplay 4
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Spades Free Gameplay 5
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Spades Free Gameplay 6
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Spades Free Bidding Hints
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Spades Free Example of My Partners Non-Strategic Moves
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Spades Free My Partner Cut Me Out
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Spades Free CPU Not So Smart Moves Bumping Heads
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Spades Free End of Hand Scores
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Spades Free We Win
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Spades Free Animated Start Screen
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Spades Free Players and Their Strategies
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Spades Free Advanced Players and Their Strategies
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Spades Free Either Purchase New Deck or Install Another Game to get it
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Spades Free Table Difficulty Level
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Spades Free Stats
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Spades Free Stats Against Computer
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Spades Free Options
Fun Factor:
If you’re a spades player, this will definitely bring that nostalgic fun. Plus you can play in short casual bursts or get immersed into a full table as gameplay is at your pace, as you tap to play and/or dismiss tricks.
Addictive:
Highly for those that play. If you don’t know how, the game features a rules guide, and even help hints on bidding and suggestive cards to play if you get stumped.
Graphics:
The graphics are one of the other key differentiators of this game, as mentioned it features some buttery smooth animation of cards and menus. Backgrounds and card decks can be changed and the overall theme is pleasant and vibrant.
Accelerometer, Vibration & Sound:
Spades Free features a few sound effects in the background. I tend to mute them in the options menu as they’re unnecessary.