Zynga quietly launched an intriguing new title called Zynga Poker Blitz today for players on Facebook. The game is being marketed as “poker for the masses”, and seems to be a mix between Texas Holdem Poker, Farmville, and Yoville. Players are given a certain amount of facebook poker chips to start, just as in their original title Zynga Poker. They then play their way through arcade style levels in order to unlock bonuses that either award more facebook poker chips, lucky charms, or other types of rewards.
After unlocking a certain amount of levels, players earn the opportunity to play in groups, where you can pool your facebook poker chips to compete in weekly tournaments for prizes like an iTouch. Zynga decided to play a bit dirty, however, by circumventing Facebook’s privacy rules by forcing players to opt in to allow Zynga access to their email address. Players who refuse to subscribe to this feature are not allowed to progress beyond the menu screeen. It would seem Zynga didn’t learn their lesson about using underhanded tricks on their users from their “Scamville” affiliate offer debacle last year.
The game graphics are bright and engaging, and fast paced music lends an element of excitement to the game. The application will likely appeal to very young players, or gamers who simply don’t have the attention span or patience for playing regular poker. Poker afficinados, however, will most likely be turned off by the cartoon-like element of the game and the dumbed down playing style. Perhaps Zynga should have marketed this game as “poker for the asses” instead.
