Everyone loves card games. The problem is, sometimes you don’t have a deck with you when you want to play. Maybe you’ll find yourself travelling in a car, sitting in a plane, or happen to be anywhere a conventional deck of cards could prove complicated. Whatever the reason may be that you can’t feed your card game addiction, you should take a look at IsoCards by Michael Williams. The game itself runs off of an iPad, but it’s the integration with multiple iPhone/iPod touches that create the magic. However the biggest selling feature of this application is that for $1.99 you’re able to play any card game you can think of.
I am in love with IsoCards because I have been able to play President, Poker, Go Fish, and even Uno with as many people as I want. The key to IsoCards is that it has no limit to the amount of decks you lay on the table, and no limit to the players that can hold the cards.
On the iPad’s board, a player is represented by a tray that automatically assembles the cards thrown in it and if a hand is cupped above it, they flip over to see. Upon lifting your hand they flip back to their back side to hide them from the other players. A helpful overlay allows each player to automatically sort their cards from lowest to highest. If however you deem yourself too good to leave your cards residing on the communal board, you can connect your iPhone or iPod touch for the best experience.
Your iPhone or iPod touch will hold your cards as your player tray hangs off the side of the board where you sit in relation to the iPad. Tossing a card from the iPad to the tray on the side will drop it in the hand, and on the corresponding iPhone or iPod touch. Flicking the card towards the iPad from the iPhone or iPod touch shoots it from the tray back on to the board.
Combined with the super slick device integration, the limitless amount of players and cards playable at one time, and the low price tag, the fact that it also has automatic dealing and shuffling, notes for each player and for the board (keeping score? I just draw smiley faces when it’s not my turn), and multiple types of cards such as American, Italian, and Uno, IsoCards is everything I ever wanted in a digital card simulator and more. It wraps all of it together with amazingly accurate multitouch and nice clean graphics.
As sad as it is to say, I’ve found myself playing a quick game of president with my brother on IsoCards, with the knowledge that a real deck of cards lays just a few feet away. It adds a new level of entertainment and I really do enjoy it.
So, do you often play cards on your iPhone/iPod touch or iPad? If so, which application is your favourite?
