Black Jacket from Mi’pu’mi Games and Skystone Games is a blackjack-inspired roguelite deckbuilder in which you must try to gamble your way out of hell. Check out our Black Jacket review!
Black Jacket from Mi’pu’mi Games and Skystone Games is a blackjack-inspired roguelite deckbuilder in which you must try to gamble your way out of hell. You’ll need to play blackjack against the restless souls that are endlessly wandering around the afterlife as you try to take their coins so that you can use them to bribe the ferryman, so that you can finally escape. Unfortunately for you, this is no regular game of blackjack. Sure, you’ll still need to pay attention to try to learn their playstyle – read your opponents as you try to outsmart them! Along with the regular cards you’re used to seeing in a game of blackjack, you’ll also be able to add powerful cards to your deck that can be used to change the rules as you use them to do things such as increase or decrease their card values, swap cards with your opponent, or force your opponent to overcommit.
I’ve previously had a chance to work on reviews for other releases from Mi’pu’mi Games. These have included The Flower Collectors, an adventure game inspired by classic noir films in which you’ll be tasked with solving a murder mystery set in 1977 Barcelona. Another one is Howl, a solid tactical turn-based narrative fairytale experience. Tracey also did a review for The Lion’s Song, a point and click adventure with a sepia look and a lot of feel. All of these reviews have been on Nintendo Switch, so it was only fitting that I took Black Jacket for a spin on Nintendo’s hybrid console.
The game will first have you take on a tutorial so that you can learn the basics and get the hang of things. Once you’re playing blackjack, you’ll have to use your coins to pay the blind. The goal, as expected, is to draw enough cards to get to 21 without going over. If you get a blackjack by using a card with a value of 10 and an Ace, that can allow you to beat a hand that also has a total of 21 without a blackjack. You can choose to pass if you feel that drawing another card will have you going bust. Do this by pressing the X button. Your cards will be compared to those of your opponent.
The one who wins is returned the coins paid for the blind, and the loser’s coin will be sent to the Winner’s Pot. Once you manage to have your opponent run out of coins, you’ll get the Winner’s Pot and will be able to move on to the next node. While you can try to win by relying on your luck, you should definitely make the most of your… skills. You can sleeve a card as long as you can cover the cost with your coins. This will allow you to bring it into play by pressing the ZR button.
Some of the slots on the table will have a cost, thus forcing you – or your opponent – to cover the extra cost and add those coins to the pot. You could use this to your advantage and use an exploit on one of the slots that has an added cost. This is a good way of forcing your opponent to add more coins to the pot to speed up the process so that you can defeat them. Other options could be increasing the value of the card placed on the slot by 1. Be sure to press the L button to review your deck every now and then to see which cards you have left.
Since this is a roguelite, you’ll be moving through a map that has different node types for you to choose from, depending on which path you want to take. You could get to a node that grants you extra coins, or another one that is known as Wildcards, on which you’ll be able to choose two cards to add to your deck. Another node type will allow you to burn a card from your deck. You’ll also find regular battles, as well as more challenging elite battles, all leading to the boss fight for that layer.
The coins that you collect can be spent at a shop that you find along the way. Coins in the Winner’s Pot will be spent first, before you dive into your personal stash. At the start of a run, you’ll pick three suits of cards for that run. One suit will be for your starting deck and potential cards to purchase. The two remaining suits will be for the additional cards that you can find when you enter a shop.
When at a shop, you will then be able to spend your coins to add regular cards, more powerful cards with extra effects, or awakened cards that have been upgraded to have extra effects. You can also pay to burn a card to remove it from your deck, or pay to awaken a blank card in your deck to unlock its effects. You can press the R button to take a closer look at each card to see what each of its effects can do.
On top of the powerful cards that you’ll be adding to your deck, you’ll also be able to obtain artifacts that will provide you with an advantage. There are artifacts such as, for example, the Marble Eye, which grants Insight to the X value, equal to your empty table slots. This effect will trigger after both players have passed. Another artifact is the Bell Chimes, which increases the number of cards that can be awakened at an event or at the shop. You could also get the Furnace artifact, which will increase the number of cards that can be burned at an event by 1.
If you want to 100% the game, then you’ll need to work on completing the different challenges that the game has for you. These are split into cards, sleeves, stashes, extras, and artifacts. Some examples of the challenges that you’ll be working on include burning 15 cards, winning 50 encounters, sleeving 20 cards, playing a card out of your sleeve to get a 21, playing 100 cards, spending 30 coins, defeating 3 realm bosses, or having 8 or more artifacts at the same time.
Some of the challenges that you complete will grant you boosts that will aid you during subsequent runs. These can include, for instance, lowering the cost of sleeving cards by 1, increasing your sleeve size by 1, increasing your stash size by 1, increasing the size of the Winner’s Pot by 1, gaining a Soul Coin, having a random card in your starter deck being awakened, and more.
Black Jacket is a Blackjack-inspired roguelite deckbuilder in which you must try to gamble your way out of hell. You’ll need to play blackjack against the restless souls that are endlessly wandering around the afterlife as you try to take their coins so that you can use them to bribe the ferryman, so that you can finally escape. Unfortunately for you, this is no regular game of blackjack. Sure, you’ll still need to pay attention to try to learn their playstyle – read your opponents as you try to outsmart them!
Along with the regular cards you’re used to seeing in a game of blackjack, you’ll also be able to add powerful cards to your deck that can be used to change the rules as you use them to do things such as increase or decrease their card values, swap cards with your opponent, or force your opponent to overcommit. Black Jacket launches today on Nintendo Switch with a $14.99 price tag.
Disclaimer
This Black Jacket review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Skystone Games.
