Solitaire Poker (Game Gear) review "Gaffe"

Poker is a game played with two or more people, and the absolute straightforward explanation of victory is that you need the best card hand out of every participant. Using a basic 52-deck card set, consisting of the typical spread of Hearts, Diamonds, Spades, and Clubs, each player must formulate the best hand possible after drawing five random cards per round. Poker has ten hands to work with; such examples include the basic One Pair that involves two cards in your set having the same number, a Straight where all five cards are in numerical order, or the ultimate Royal Flush where an A, K, Q, J, and 10 cards in the same suit must be drawn.

Of course, there are more rules in Poker that involve method of drawing cards, betting, and losing a round, but none of that extra stuff matters when it comes to Solitaire Poker. As its name explains, this is a solo rendition of Poker, but one with a different structure. Using a deck containing 53 cards, with the extra card being a Joker, the objective is to reach the listed score of each round. Scoring points is done by constantly pulling random cards from the deck to create a hand, with better hands granting higher points. Sounds direct so far, right? Wait until you hear exactly how this is being implemented.

With the use of a 5 x 5 grid, you must drop your drawn cards, one at a time, into said grid and eventually fill in all empty spots. As you're doing this, you must also form hands, whether it's horizontal, vertical, or diagonally. The Joker acts as a "free" card that helps complete hands, so be sure to place it in the best possible position. Graciously, the hands don't have to be in "numerical" order, as long as the correct cards are in a line of five. The biggest catch is that you can't simply put a card wherever you want, since you're required to place cards starting from the bottom and make your way up; the game is pretty much a combination of a crossword puzzle and a falling block puzzle.

While "Poker Patience" was not a new thing at the time of this game's release, it is certainly an interesting choice for the then newly-launched Game Gear. Benefits include the lack of motion blur due to the action being on a screen that doesn't shift, not to mention its structure being ideal for brief sessions during short trips and whatnot. It also has a lovely Okinawan theme as its setting, featuring an ocean backdrop, complete with default music mimicking the sanshin instrument. Hilariously, the English cover art for Solitaire Poker gives no indication of this theme, instead looking like the most generic cover ever with playing cards; on the other hand, the original Japanese cover, under the name Ryukyu, outright displays a real picture of a woman in a bikini at a beach setting.

The game is by no means one of the Game Gear's greatest titles, but it wins some points for not being your typical Poker video game release during its era. Though, the devs do add variety to the structure in an attempt at replay value. The featured variations are three versions of the 1P mode, where the cards are pulled from the deck differently, with some giving more or less options per pull, and in 1P TRY mode, the top score is different based on the difficulty chosen. There's even a VS mode where you can link up with another Game Gear and battle one another. It should also be noted that in 1P mode, the game tasks players to complete 15 rounds per version and, to add leeway, you can continue countless times at the beginning of each round.



It's not really much, but these variants give the game an extra layer of challenge for those willing to spend additional time with the title. However, this is also where the product becomes increasingly... sloppy, in terms of structure.

Going through 15 rounds sounds like a neat obstacle to overcome, especially since the top score increases with every passing round. But that's it. There are no other actual changes to the gameplay and visuals; you're literally playing the exact same grid, in front of the exact same ocean backdrop, for numerous rounds. The only real difference is that the order of cards pulled are different per round, as is the case for many card games, and yet the devs couldn't even do this competently. When you fail and restart a round, the order of cards pulled remain the same. This sounds great to abuse... until you come across a bad deck that's unwinnable. The solution? You have to restart the game from the very beginning in the hopes of pulling decent winnable decks for 15 subsequent rounds.

Not letting the game shuffle a deck after restarting a round feels like an insane programming oversight, but that seems to be the case here. Like, can you imagine playing Klondike on your computer and the only deck available is an unwinnable one because it never shuffles?



1P TRY mode is also dumb. It's 1P mode where you only play one round and select from different difficulties. Wh... why not just incorporate 1P TRY's features into 1P mode? Why is this a separate thing? VS mode is also bizarrely executed. Two players "battle" each other, yes, but it's literally just whoever has the highest score in the end wins; it's "pass the controller" with extra unnecessary steps. There IS a time limit... but that's optional. One player can choose 30 seconds, while the second can choose 90 seconds. It's really silly. There is a second VS variant where usable cards become covered if the other player performs a good hand, but every stupid thing from the first variant remains. It just feels like an afterthought.

That's the biggest problem with Solitaire Poker: the core idea is "neat" at best, but the execution of everything surrounding that idea is questionable and lazy. If you're going to make it 15 rounds, include shuffling, interesting challenges, and obstacles along the way for the sake of variety. If you're going to make a VS mode that requires two Game Gears and two copies of the game, make it make sense. If you can find the game pretty cheap, then it's good for a few basic sessions on the go before losing interest. Otherwise, just find a deck of cards in your home and play your own creation; the chances of you making a better version is very high.

Community review by dementedhut (August 30, 2026) *thumbs up*