Pirates of the Caribbean Poker

Disney really is starting to take this whole mobile phone business very seriously. Granted most of their new wave of games have simply been clones of well-established game types, but they have all been impressively polished articles. And all with nary a talking mouse or swearing duck in sight.

Pirates of the Caribbean Poker is another great idea. On the face of it, pirates and gambling do seem a perfect mix, although if we're being picky on-screen pirates tend to roll more dice than deal cards.

While there's a bit of dice rolling in this, cards are definitely the order of the day, with Texas Hold 'em backed up by variants Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, Blind Man's Bluff and Caribbean Stud. All of which actually exist in the real world and are not, as you might initially think, made up by Disney. Which almost counts as edutainment.

Pirates of the Caribbean Poker doesn't do anything in the least bit original with the basic gameplay but it does frame it with an unusually generous range of options and features. In this case that means a full Story mode, which not only features poorly drawn caricatures of the movie's main characters but also goes to the trouble of actually teaching you how to play poker.

It's amazing how many other poker sims never bother to do this, although the cartoon presentation and movie theme tune playing in the background does give the worrying impression that it's all aimed at teaching kids how to gamble. Or maybe that's just being cynical and it's really aimed at Johnny Depp fans who only know how to play Blackjack.

To be fair, though, the game does make great use of the movie's setting with a wide array of options on hand for you to cheat, including hiding cards up your sleeve, marking the cards and even using magic dice.

Not only is this a great help when up against the computer but it really does sell the whole pirate theme – to the point where you hope Disney does a cowboy version with the ability to hide a pistol down your socks.

A final piratical flourish is made via the rewards up for grab when you win, which instead of being boring old virtual cash tends to come in the form of treasure maps, other people's ships and the occasional eternal soul. There's no grog drinking mini-game, but that's pretty much all you could complain about.

Disney hasn't skimped on the multiplayer options either, with both pass-the-handset and Bluetooth options as well as access to their proprietary online high score set-up.

Mobile phones aren't exactly suffering from a paucity of poker games, but most are horribly banal casino simulations. What this does is prove that even the most over-familiar idea can be spiced up with only a modicum of effort and thought (and virtual rum).