Spades 1.0

Spades is an application that lets you play Spades on your Mac. Spades is a rather popular partnership card game in which you and your partner set out to win what are called tricks.

You play with a partner and each of you makes a bid when the game starts. A bid is the number of tricks that you think you will win each game. The objective of the game is to make that exact number of tricks. When the game starts, each player will discard a card, and whoever has the highest card wins that trick. A spade will always win, regardless of the card's number. So, after the game is completed, the number of tricks that you, your partner and your two opponents made is compared to their bids and then the score is determined. The scoring system is a bit complicated. For example, if you go over the number of bids, you are subtracted a few points. Whoever has the most points wins that round.

The graphics of the game are its weakest point. When you launch the game, it takes the full screen and the cards and menu items look like a DOS game from the 1990's. The music is OK, but a bit repetitive.

The actual gameplay is great. The computer guides you with instructions on what you can and can't do. If you already knew how to play Spades before playing this game, you will enjoy it. On the other hand, if you are like me, a novice player, you will probably struggle a bit at first until you get the hang of it.

In short, Spades is a nice simulation of the Spades card game. If the menus were improved a bit and the music was less repetitive, this game would definitely get five stars.