ROUNDUP: Our Favourite (Non-Bridge) Card Game Apps
by Katie Coopersmith © 2017 Gifts for Card Players
Young or old, we’re all glued to our phones these days. Most of us lament this situation fairly often, but take a moment to look at the bright side. Our technological sidekicks can be distracting, sure, but they can also serve as some good old-fashioned entertainment, or even as a self-improvement tool!
Whether you’ve played bridge online before or whether you’re already a devotee of a particular card game app, you may or may not have interacted with card games using your smartphone or tablet. Playing virtual cards can be a fantastic way to hone your skills and play anytime, even when you don’t have a partner or group of friends around to play with. Whichever end of the tech geek spectrum you fall on, I’m almost certain that there’s a card game app – or three – out there that’s perfect for you! We’ve already got you covered on the best bridge apps (check out our Great Bridge Links lists here and here), but let’s take a look at some of the standout options for other card games.
- Sage Solitaire
This solo-player app, available for both iOS and Android, is just insanely addictive…like all good apps are! You’re presented with a 3×3 grid of cards drawn from a standard 52-card deck, and your job is to eliminate cards from the grid by forming poker hands with them. Sage Solitaire offers quick gameplay, an attractive display, and best of all, you can also use it to test the odds! In the game’s “True Grit Mode,” you wager fake money on the outcome of hands, but here’s the catch: if you don’t do well, you’re banned from playing that mode forever! Those are some high stakes.
Editors note: Personally my addictive solitaire game is Free Cell! Play at your own risk.
Okay, so you don’t have to buy the deluxe version…but we highly recommend doing so! Card Shark Collection Deluxe offers more than 50 different card games in layouts that are super easy to use, even for the technologically challenged. You can play euchre, rummy, spades, Egyptian rat screw…and the list goes on! Check it out and see how many new games you can learn. I bet even the most seasoned card player could find something new in this collection.
Card Crawl’s website describes the game as “a solitaire style Dungeon Crawler played with a modified deck of standard cards”. It’s fast-paced, high-stakes, and adrenaline-pumping, centred around risk and reward. You get a four-card hand each round, which can include tools, gold, or monster cards. Your job is to crawl through a dungeon and make it out alive (i.e. without being eaten by monsters) with as much loot as possible. Solitaire’s changed since you were a kid, huh?
- Pandemic
Pandemic has become a popular board game as of late, but it’s also a killer app (pun somewhat intended). The basic premise is that a terrible, virulent disease has spread around the world, and your job as a player is to take on the role of a doctor, scientist, or other emergency-response professional and stop the spread. You can play with up to three other players online.
- Ticket to Ride
Yet another popular card-slash-board game has hit the app world. Ticket to Ride has players scramble madly to complete itineraries that have them traveling across the world (say, from Amsterdam to Tokyo) while attempting to score more points than their competitors. You can play against AI bots, strangers, or friends, and you can even play in person with others due to the app’s unique pass-and-play feature (which generally works best on larger screens like tablets).
- Magic Duels
If you’ve ever been a fan of Magic: The Gathering (or know someone who has), you know how darn addictive this massively widespread game can be. Magic Duels catalogues all of the Magic: The Gathering cards with intense detail, and it offers a bunch of different gameplay modes including Story Mode, Practice Mode, Arena Mode, and Two-Headed Giant mode. Some reviewers have warned that this game may not be well-suited for beginners, but we say why not try it out!
