Dance of Cards Nintendo Switch Review 9/10 "A game that won my heart...and spade, club, diamond." 🃏🃏 @FrogOfHearts #IndieGame #GameDev

I bloody love coming across games like Dance of Cards – which seems to be released on the Switch just for me, at the perfect time. I’ve been playing Balatro on and off over the last few weeks, and one evening, as I failed yet another run, I mused idly to myself how awesome a poker-based RPG would be...and a few days later, Dance of Cards sidled shiftily into my deck. Needless to say, I went in blind.

The game casts you in the role of the heroically named ‘Martin’, a magician and card mechanic in a small town that is getting sent on to the big city by his shady manager, on a cruise ship. And on said voyage...things go somewhat awry.

The game is presented in a top-down classic JRPG style, albeit with the visuals more akin to an early AGS (Adventure Game Studio) game, in that they are simple, pixelated, and charming. Good.

The fundamentals are explained to you as you move through the initial township which acts as a tutorial, we learn that Martin has a talented musician friend – more on him later, and that his sister (Emma) acts as his glamorous assistant. The heart of the game is poker, more specifically – Texas Hold ‘em, and you’ll have plenty of opportunities to learn the mechanics of the game as you play with the many new faces that you discover on your quest.

This isn’t a simple, po(ker)-faced game, however – and you’ll soon discover that this is a game that – whilst admittedly a little unbalanced when it comes to character abilities – throws a lot of subtle layers at the player to tweak the game as they see fit. For example, when you go into certain poker battles, you can choose which of your team to take with you, which naturally will make things easier or harder for yourself as a player. 

You also need to keep track of your gear, inventory, and talents – as the game isn’t too great at letting you know when you can level up your talents. Martin’s main talent is the ol’ ‘switcheroo’ whereby he can switch one of his cards with an opponents’, naturally this takes time to recharge and can be even more useful when used in tandem with his sister Emma’s ability to mime the previous talent, for instance. Of course, this means that other characters also have their unique abilities, and many is the time I’ve conjured up a saucy, winning hand only for someone to yank a gun on me and force me to fold! Ah, such is the high stakes gambling life.

The sense of humour is something I’d also like to highlight, there’s a sort of unspoken quirkiness to things that I really enjoyed. For example, there’s a moment when you initially embark the cruise liner, and the game forces you in a certain direction by making an NPC suddenly walk out of the room, suddenly smashing over a plate-laden dresser as he does so, with no-one in game reacting at all, or the key moment whereby the ship gets rocked by an explosion and the captain – via reel-to-reel film – calmly explains – AS THE BOAT IS SINKING – that the only natural course of action is for everyone to form groups of four and play lengthy games of competitive poker, with the winners getting a spot on the lifeboats – and everyone present immediately assumes that it’s a completely sane response to the situation. Good. It’s refreshing to play a genuinely amusing game that doesn’t highlight the laughs, and just lets them play out.

It would also be remiss of me to not highlight the incredible music in the game. Your close friend – Doremy – appears at key points in the game as a sort of ‘house backing band’ to act as a musical accompaniment to your poker-based shenanigans and the simple, ear-worm-like melodies are the perfect backdrop to the card-centric action. Doremy’s singing ( and occasional accordian playing) is accented by a single-note keyboard melody with on-screen lyrics, so you can effectively sing along, and the snare and cymbal work by the band drummer is accurately portrayed on-screen, come on – how cool is that! This is a game made by a very small team, and that flourish absolutely won me over, such great attention to detail that brings the wacky world of Dance of Cards to life.

SUMMARY
Dance of Cards was a wonderful game to discover, and it’s zany take on the – admittedly specific – poker RPG genre has been a real highlight of 2025 so far. 

Come for the poker, stay for the music, what an awesome little game.

9/10

🧊🍧ICE COOL🍧🧊