{"id":125331,"date":"2022-06-01T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-131697"},"modified":"2022-06-01T21:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T21:00:00","slug":"review-card-shark-a-wonderfully-witty-warioware-esque-affair-with-cards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2022\/06\/01\/review-card-shark-a-wonderfully-witty-warioware-esque-affair-with-cards\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Card Shark – A Wonderfully Witty WarioWare-Esque Affair, With Cards"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
\"Card
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld\/Undocked)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They say cheaters never prosper, but clearly they\u2019ve never played Card Shark<\/a>, a wonderfully tense, goofy little game that\u2019s all about keeping your cool under tremendous pressure as you basically rob people blind. The act of pulling off the con is shockingly simple, but maintaining one\u2019s composure to ensure that everything goes according to plan is shockingly not<\/em> simple. Published by Devolver Digital, it\u2019s the kind of game that\u2019ll stick with you long after the credits have rolled, and if you\u2019re even remotely interested, we\u2019d very much encourage you to give it a go.<\/p>\n

Card Shark takes place in 18th century France and places you in the role of a mute servant boy. While waiting on a boisterous noble calling himself the Comte de Saint-Germain (who actually existed) at the behest of your patron, you get roped into helping the rascal cheat in a game of cards in exchange for some of the winnings. Unfortunately, your opponent eventually gets wise to what you\u2019re up to and your patron gets fatally shot in the ensuing struggle. Impressed by your con-artist skills and preying upon your newfound homelessness, the Comte thus takes you under his wing and the two of you set out on an adventure to fleece all manner of high society nobles across France. All the while, you slowly begin to realize that the Comte is tangled up in a bigger conspiracy concerning the French royalty.<\/p>\n

\"Card
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld\/Undocked)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s a delightful narrative all the way through, bolstered by the lighthearted, razor-sharp wit that permeates the writing. The silver-tongued Comte says more than enough for the two of you, and there\u2019s a certain kind of goofy charm in how the pair of you manage to solve all your problems by leveraging your abilities to fool people. For example, if your character happens to die at any point, you can con Lady Death\u2014a skeleton with a luxurious mane\u2014in a card game to force her to give you your life back. Or in another example, you manage to get out of a hostage situation by delaying your captors for long enough with a game. We found ourselves looking forward to what each new level would bring, if only to see what kind of trouble this conniving duo would get themselves into (and out of) next.<\/p>\n

Gameplay in Card Shark could be most closely described as a take on the minigame frenzy of a WarioWare<\/a> entry. Each level tasks you with completing relatively simple tricks like shuffling a deck, flipping a coin, or pouring wine, and these are accomplished with Quick Time Event-like prompts. What makes this so thrilling is the fact that you\u2019re constantly under pressure as you\u2019re doing so, often because you have to commit lots of information to memory in a very short period of time.<\/p>\n

For example, when you\u2019re pouring wine for someone, the screen usually splits in two to also show you the cards in their hand. You have about three seconds to pour the wine\u2014too much or too little will draw attention\u2014but you also need to remember things like how many cards they had in a particular suit or what their highest card was. Splitting your attention between the cards and the amount of wine in the glass is surprisingly difficult, and we often found ourselves second-guessing whether we actually saw what we thought we did in the opponent\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n

\"Card
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the game continues, there are increasingly more difficult minigames to complete, requiring more steps and more specific information to keep in your memory. This adds a nice difficulty curve to the experience; just when you feel like you\u2019ve mastered the latest trick, it gets tossed and you have to learn a new one. This pace also keeps the game feeling fresh over time, as you\u2019re rarely going longer than 10 or 15 minutes before things shift to a new minigame that has different demands and reinvents things all over again.<\/p>\n

Each level ultimately comes down to you playing several rounds until your opponent is either broke or can\u2019t meet the minimum bet. To keep things interesting, there\u2019s an awareness gauge at the bottom of the screen representing your opponent\u2019s suspicion that you\u2019re colluding with your friend at the table, and if it fills up all the way, you\u2019ll be either tossed out or killed. Having that meter constantly moving as you\u2019re desperately trying to properly stack a deck or correctly signal a specific card to your friend adds a lot of tension, which can sometimes lead you to make sloppy mistakes resulting in a lost round or tipping off your opponent. On occasion, it can feel like the player is being asked to keep track of a bit too<\/em> much, but we ran into no scenarios that couldn\u2019t be overcome with the right practice.<\/p>\n

\"Card
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Card Shark isn\u2019t a particularly hard game, then, when you get right down to what you\u2019re actually doing moment-to-moment, but there\u2019s a tremendous amount of stress that comes with how much you\u2019re being rushed in each minigame and this stress is what makes it so engaging. Even though each level only takes around 10 minutes to complete, it feels<\/em> a lot longer as you\u2019re nervously eyeing the suspicion meter and trying to remember if it was an ace of hearts or an ace of diamonds in the opponent\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n

We also rather appreciated how developer Nerial focuses intently on this tension without adding any unnecessary mechanics or filler to water it down. There\u2019s no leveling up or buying items to help slow down time or give you another chance if you forgot what\u2019s in your opponent\u2019s hand, this is a game where you either rise to the occasion or suffer bitter defeat. It\u2019s not particularly skill-dependent either, making it very approachable to players of all skill levels.<\/p>\n

Nicolai Troshinksy\u2019s painterly art style really helps to sell the overall aesthetic, presenting you with many richly detailed paintings that do a lot to add to the immersion for each level. Individually visible brush strokes help to give the background visuals appeal, while the characters move and animate in a simple, almost stop-motion style. Each chateau or bar you find yourself in is far more colorful than the real-world versions probably looked, giving things an understated yet fantastic flair. Plus, things like your mute character\u2019s exaggerated \u2018sketchy\u2019 expression as he\u2019s looking at another player\u2019s cards ensures that plenty of the humor in the writing is reflected in the visuals.<\/p>\n

\"Card
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld\/Undocked)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As for the soundtrack, the music mostly sticks to renaissance-style classical tunes, with the odd shanty or ballad tossed in to mix it up. The music fits like a glove for the overall tone that Card Shark is going for, and though it isn\u2019t particularly catchy<\/em>, many tracks don\u2019t sound too far off from what we expect may have been played in a bar at the time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

Card Shark is the kind of game that at first blush seems like it just won\u2019t work. Lots of dialogue bookended by brief, simplistic minigame sequences seems like it would make for an experience that would lose its luster quickly, yet we couldn\u2019t put it down. Witty writing, high-stakes gameplay, and a gorgeous art style all come together here to make for a game that\u2019s well-executed and unique in its appeal. If you\u2019re looking to try something awesome that notably bucks most modern gaming trends, Card Shark is absolutely something we\u2019d recommend, well worth your time and money.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld\/Undocked) They say cheaters never prosper, but clearly they\u2019ve never played Card Shark, a wonderfully tense, goofy little game that\u2019s all about keeping your cool under tremendous pressure as you basically rob people blind. The act of pulling off the con is shockingly simple, but maintaining one\u2019s composure to ensure that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}