Vegas Hustler
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| Vegas Hustler

Vegas is a fascinating place if you're someone like me, whose main source of excitement comes from eavesdropping on the conversations of little old ladies on my weekly trip to the post office, and who gets their cerebral stimulus from Radio 4 and reading internet blogs.

In contrast, Vegas is a place that's properly alive. If you discount the fat, dead-eyed Americans feeding slots with quarters, of course. It's a place where anything can happen - mostly immoral anythings.

It's where six American MIT students scammed millions of dollars from Blackjack tables by card counting. I would love the ability to memorise the order of eight decks of cards and currently be in Vegas, hustling the MGM Grand out of a few thousand bucks.

Luckily, here on my phone I have the second best thing. Okay, maybe not the second best thing - that would be hustling in Sydney, followed by perhaps the Bahamas, but - you know - it's a contender.

It's Vegas Hustler, a game that, on the surface, plays a little bit like Las Vegas Nights: Temptations In The City because it lets you roam around a bit of Vegas, talking to whoever you like, completing side missions and having a crafty game of roulette when the mood takes you.

Where Vegas Hustler differs, though, from both Las Vegas Nights and every other gambling mobile game out there is that it lets you cheat.

You can choose to play it straight if you like (and, in fact, you can't cheat all the time, as indicated by the security camera constantly present in the upper left of the screen, which flashes red when suspicion has been raised) but you can also hit '0' after placing your bet and choose to cheat.

In each of the three games - Craps, Roulette and Blackjack - how to cheat differs only slightly. In each case you stop a set of reels depending on the outcome you want.

So, in Blackjack you can choose which cards will be dealt to you - obviously a picture card and an ace is what you're ideally aiming to stop the reels on. In Craps you stop them on the numbers you want the dice to land on.

There's also a final reel - a picture of a security camera in green, amber or red. Manage to stop that on green, and no one will notice you're cheating. Red attracts attention, which means you won't be able to cheat again for a higher number of turns.

Another consideration is that the higher your gain when cheating - if you've just chucked $500 on 24 red on the roulette table for instance - the faster the reels spin. In fact, they'll spin so fast in that instance you don't even get much of an advantage on just playing straight.

The gambling is just half the story in Vegas Hustler, however - there's a lot more to do. The plot follows your character as he's sacked from his job in casino security and meets up with a waitress whose brother has been murdered by one of the casino's head honchos.

The game gives you one new objective after another - generally they involve finding a person or item to progress. There are also side quests to pick up by talking to other characters and achievements to win throughout the game (you're given the full list in the main menu).

On top of all this, playing games and becoming a master hustler increases your character's status and means you can access new areas and casinos. There's tons to do, as demonstrated in the beefy lists found on the menu screen where you keep tabs on everything going on.

If you want lots of different casino games, the three on offer here are a bit paltry and there are better games out there. No Limit Casino 12 Pack for instance. But if you want a proper, lengthy, story-led game that concentrates on the grimier side of Vegas and milks a lot of fun out of every casino game, it's Vegas Hustler all the way.

Vegas Hustler

A brilliant Vegas-based adventure with a proper story and objectives and - of course - lots of gambling. Hustle your way to maximum notoriety by cheating the tables and winning thousands
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Kath Brice
Kath Brice
Kath gave up a job working with animals five years ago to join the world of video game journalism, which now sees her running our DS section. With so many male work colleagues, many have asked if she notices any difference.