Casino Kid II (NES) Playthrough

A playthrough of Sofel's 1992 casino game for the NES, Casino Kid II.

A year after becoming a millionaire and being declared the "King of the Casino," the Casino Kid receives a message from a mystery man informing him that elimination tournaments have been held to determine who the best players are worldwide. The Casino Kid must now rise to the challenge and defeat each of these new champions if he is to meet this mystery man and defend his title.

This North American-exclusive follow-up to 1989's Casino Kid (   • Casino Kid (NES) Playthrough  ) ditches the first game's RPG-style meet-and-greet sandbox approach in lieu of a more streamlined system. Instead of wandering around the casino floor chatting up women in bunny ears, you now issue your challenges from a world map yanked straight from Street Fighter II.

The blackjack and poker games return from the first game, and they play exactly the same as before. Blackjack is still just a question of how close you can get to 21 without going over, and in poker, your opponents' reactions to the hands they're dealt are clues that are meant to guide you in how you play your own hands.

The roulette game that was left out of the North American version of Casino Kid is brought back for the sequel, and it works much the same as poker. Rather than relying on pure luck, the comments your opponent makes before each spin hint at where the ball will likely land. For example, if Paul asks, "How old are you?" the ball is going to land somewhere between 1 and 18, and if he says, "I don't like black cars," any bet on black will hit. It's a neat way to beef up what is essentially a glorified random number generator, but there's a lot of trial-and-error involved in figuring out what the messages mean.

The games put a neat video game twist on classic casino table staples and the opponents lend the game a fun, silly vibe - playing roulette against Chun-Li is as unexpected as it is funny - but in scrapping the overworld segments, Casino Kid II loses a lot of the novel charm that made the first game so engaging and memorable. The graphics are nice, though (as nice as you could expect given the subject matter, at least), and the music is pretty good. (That password screen tune @1:12:51 is an unexpected banger!)

Casino Kid II doesn't hit as hard as Casino Kid did, but it's still one of the better gambling-themed carts you'll find on the NES. If the idea of amassing virtual piles of loot through games of chance appeals to you, check it out!
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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