Cafe Hearts

We've already covered the DChoc Café concept in some depth here on Pocket Gamer. It's an ambitious series from Digital Chocolate that takes traditional casual games and embellishes them with community features such as a custom avatar and a virtual playground resembling a coffee house. The idea is that you'll invite your friends to drop in to visit and perhaps even to admire your, ahem, 'trophies'.

Games released so far have included Cafe Spades, Cafe Solitaire, Cafe Poker and Cafe Sudoku, so you've had plenty of opportunities to become familiar with the series already. And if not, why not? These are some of the most polished and playable mobile games currently available, and if you want to make the most of your phone's network connectivity, this is your best bet by far.

Cafe Hearts is the latest addition to the roster, an obscure card game where players win by scoring the least points possible. For complete novices the rules might be a bit tricky to understand ("You win by losing? Are you sure?") but there's a comprehensive tutorial to ease you into it. And once you've grasped the basic concept, Hearts proves to be an immensely enjoyable diversion.

This is because, like the most enduring of classic card games, there's a fair degree of deep strategy involved. Players have to avoid scoring points by safely disposing of all the cards in their hand, especially the suite of hearts. To succeed means having to predict what cards your three opponents are holding, using a process of deduction based on the cards you hold and the cards being played on the table. Still with us so far?

The tricky part is those pesky hearts, which carry a points penalty when picked up. You can force other players to pick these up, but by the same token you can be forced to pick them up, too. You can also seize the initiative by laying down the highest card on the table and therefore win the round (or the 'trick', as it's referred to in the game), but more often than not it's better to just sit back and let the other players blunder into trouble while you sail to victory.

In addition to the basic game itself, Cafe Hearts adds further features like a league table of famous players to compete against. In these games you can also stack the deck in your favour (or not) by playing one of several rule variations. Which is just as well, since a few of these opponents are so devious and duplicitous they could give Machiavelli a run for his money.

The visuals are bright and clear, and the leather armchairs and green felt table in the game room looks very inviting indeed. And it's quite clever how the developer's managed to implement the field of play with the more quirky aspects of your virtual opponents, each of them sporting absurd fashions and a hilarious habit of gurning. It's an achievement that's even more astonishing when you consider how the uniform 'look' of the DChoc Cafe is being rolled out across a multitude of games.

In the fundamental sense of having a deck of cards and playing with friends, then, Cafe Hearts is a classic pastime whose entertainment value is above reproach. In the sense of how it's been interpreted for a mobile platform, try this on for size. Verily, our hearts have been stolen.