Press Shuffle and Play

 

Shuffle Party is the latest free game from Microsoft Studios available on the Windows Phone 7 App Marketplace. It is based around the old school Shuffle Board game that it real life I have only seen in a couple of Trailer Parks. Shuffle Board is a challenging game and likewise so is this Shuffle Party and this time they mix thing up a bit.

The first thing that you should know is that is uses Bing ads and the logical side of my brain says this is to compensate for being a free game. As for the game itself it is comprised four game modes from bowling to challenge mode and then our classic shuffleboard in either single our two player mode. Bowling is straight forward bowling with a puck instead of a ball. All rules from bowling seem to apply. So give it a go and get that strike or three! Next in Challenge mode you must go through several stages trying to earn enough points to continue. Again with four pucks you must rack up as many points by gathering coins and landing that puck in either the five, ten, or fifteen point area. With three stages each featuring eleven levels that get increasing harder with more and more obstacles. It’s fun but frustrating. And the the classic Shuffleboard where we must simply land our four pucks in the point zones and try for a high score.

As we progress we earn in game money that we can spend in the Pro Shop. Here we can buy and change the appearance of the puck, table, pins, or frames. To purchase them all is going to take a lot of gameplay, but for those achievement hunters out there-I’m sure your up to the challenge. The achievements come from all game modes except the two player option. The hardest of the bunch is to get three stars on all the challenge levels. The stars are based on your score, 45 points equals 3 stars. Most you should achieve simply by playing but others like the Hanger will require some skill. While playing Shuffleboard hang a puck off the end of the table. Also getting a score of over 175 in bowling with get you another 5g. Not too shabby on the achievement side.

Gameplay, it’s what really matters. Each mode plays the same. Move the puck left or right then angle it and use your finger to slide it down the table. Sounds easy right? Yes and No. The game does work on that basic principal, but I found that it often mistook the force at which I swiped my finger on screen. This made it difficult, but not impossible to play. There really isn’t much more to it. While I do see this as a fun challenging game, it is also frustrating too. Be warned but go get this freebie and have a little fun.