Vegas Dream
System: NES
Release Date: March 1990
Developer: HAL Laboratory
Publisher: HAL America
Genre: Casino
Head to the city that never sleeps in Vegas Dream. You have $700 in your pocket and you want to walk away a millionaire! You’ll have your chance in four different games at your favorite casino the HAL Palace Hotel. Shine up your lucky ring and hope for the best.
Choose the Vegas Dream game complete with interactions with people, or go no frills gambling in One Spot mode. The four games you have available to you are Blackjack, Roulette, Slot Machines, and Keno. Blackjack is normal casino rules with the ability to split and double down when appropriate. Insurance always fails when I buy it and the dealer snags a blackjack when I don’t! Roulette has you betting on the table and then losing it all to a 0.
There are two different slot machines available. The Pot O’ Gold machine has different denominations to choose from and is a three line bet machine. Get your favorite fruits and realize you’ll never hit the big 7s. The Jackpot Bar has you choosing how much you want to bet each pull. If you get a line of bars on the Hit line, you can win big. I played Keno like I do at the bar, going for 2, 11, and 47. I had no luck, as I do when I’m knocking a few beers back. I tried my 89/90 Pistons lineup to no avail, as well.
What doesn’t normally happen to me in real life is being propositioned by strangers. Through my time in Vegas, I had drinks spilled on me by a thief, a phone call giving me $5000 inheritance, a chandelier falling on my head, challenges to games of blackjack and roulette, and a date with a lady leading to marriage and a wedding gift from the hotel! If you run out of cash, you get one last chance to hit it big before you leave town.
Graphics: 1.5
There’s not a whole lot to the graphics, but at least they’re big.
Sound: 1.0
The music got annoying really quickly.
Gameplay: 1.0
If you can’t at least give me poker, you probably don’t need to give me a casino game.
Difficulty: 1.0
It’s all luck of the draw. There really isn’t skill involved.
Fun Factor: 1.0
I lost my ass a couple times playing and decided there wasn’t enough variety to keep playing.
Overall Grade: 1.1
Vegas Dream earns a D. There isn’t a lot to recommend in this one, unless you want luck based games.