Canasta by MeggieSoft Games

Card games have been there as a prime source of entertainment for centuries - and their popularity does not seem to decline ever! Driven by this enormous, never ending popularity of these games, the gaming industry also made sure that today’s digital-population are provided with the privilege of indulging themselves in card games within the virtual world. The result is there for all of us to see - games like solitaire or rummy established themselves one of the most popular titles in the entire industry. The Canasta by MeggieSoft Games 2008 is such a card game which is simple in nature, but entertaining enough to place itself in the same league as the above two mentioned games.

Canasta by MaggieSoft Games 2008 opens up with a visually quite pleasing interface in red. The overall layout of the game is just the same as the Solitaire. The controls and options are located quite visibly towards the top of the screen. However, unlike most other similar games, you are provided two sets of options here - you can either choose to play against your computer, or against one or more human competitors. In fact, the game allows you to compete against up to six online opponents. For those who find more pleasure in competing against the computer - there are six different skill levels of the artificial intelligence embedded into the game. This way, the game provides a perfect platform to practice and improve on their performance level quite at ease. The graphics in the background is customizable; and when it comes to the audio aspect, Canasta supports both MIDI files, as well as speech output. The game supports both point and click, as well as drag and drop modes operations.

With such high end features and functionalities along with a highly exciting gameplay, Canasta definitely deserves a score of three rating points on the scale of five.

MeggieSoft Games Canasta is a comprehensive two-player implementation supporting both the Classic and Modern American rules. Play against an online opponent or against your computer. Canasta has a rich user interface and many customizable graphic, sound (including MIDI music and speech output), rule and scoring options. Six different computer opponent skill levels are available for when you are unable to get online, or just want to practice privately.
Canasta is played with a 108-card deck (two standard packs, plus four Jokers). The game involves taking, melding, and discarding cards with the object of scoring more points than your opponent. When taking cards, one may either take new cards from the stock, or pick up the discard pile - provided that the top card can be melded immediately. Melded cards score points, and melds of seven cards (Canastas) also score bonus points. Each round ends when one player has no more cards in hand or the stock is empty. The first player to 5000 points wins the game.
The user interface, common to all MeggieSoft Games, supports both point-and-click and drag-and-drop mouse operations. Features include: realistic animated card movement; right-click pop-up menus; a hint facility; a tutorial; automatic play; automatic save and restore of partly finished games; multiple-user scoreboards; a clean and uncluttered main window; status-bar shortcut buttons; and fully customizable main display font and wallpaper effects for the table and playing mat, and the card backs.