Previous Next

OK, Hollywood Poker is not a first, we've had strip poker games before, even ones with Sam Fox. This one has to be the best.

An extremely bold statement, but I believe you'll have to agree, Hollywood Poker plays well, sounds good and looks wonderful!

The game is based on Five Card Draw Poker, which in my opinion is the simplest form of poker. You start with £100, and then every player puts £5 in at the beginning of each hand.

Naturally, there are only two players in this game, you and one of four lovely girls.

You get to choose your opponent, and each girl has her own style of play. The four girls are Isabell, Lorence, Denise and Stephanie.

My favourite has got to be Isabell, as she, in my opinion, is the most attractive, and she's also the easiest to beat!!

After choosing your opponent and placing five big ones on the table, you are dealt five cards. Your cards are displayed graphically at the bottom of the screen, and you must then decide what course of action you are going to take.

You must sort your cards, called a hand, into one of the following:

A Pair: Quite obvious, i.e. two Aces.

Two Pairs: Two sets of cards with same face value, i.e. two Kings and two Queens.

Three of a Kind: Quite simply, three cards of the same value.

A Straight: five cards which follow each other, regardless of suit, i.e. three of Hearts, four of Diamonds, five of Clubs, six of Spades, seven of Clubs.

A Flush: Any five cards of the same suite.

A Full House: A pair and three of a kind.

Four of a Kind: Speaks for itself.

A Straight Flush: The same as a straight, but of all the same suite. This is the highest hand.

Once you've seen your hand, you can either keep it (STAY), Bet on it (BET) or get rid of it (DROP). After a player decides what option is for them, player two can either raise the pot (RAISE), drop out, or they can call (CALL).

If a player calls, all betting stops and you have the chance to change some or all of your cards to make a better hand. Then betting continues. When someone calls again, the hands are compared and the winner grabs the loot.

Should you run out of money, the game ends. But if your opponent does, she will start to strip off. Each garment is exchanged for another £100, and the game continues.

Should she win her money back, your opponent will put her clothes back on.

As the girls are only wearing five garments, if you win over £500, she will have no clothes left. And that's it, you've won. All that's left to do now is remove the joystick so that no-one can press the fire button!

The best part of the game is, of course, the graphics. Each picture has been digitised, and using the Amiga's 32 colour low-res screen mode, the pictures look stunning.

The sound is of exceptional quality, and it comes in the form of two tunes, the title tune being the best.

Any moans? Well, just two. The girls seem to be far to easy to beat and I, a mere novice poker player, managed to beat each girl first go. The second moan is the fact that there didn't seem to be an "Over 16's only" label on the box. As the girls actually go completely starkers, many parents might wish there was one.

That aside, Hollywood Poker is the best strip poker game I have ever seen, heard and played. Well done Robtek. It's fantastic.