Card Shark Collection‪™‬ 12+

My original review was only three stars, because the app was harassing me to leave a review. I don't know if the app is able to somehow *tell* if I've left a review or not, but it's been over a year and I haven't been asked to leave a review since then. I'm raising my review from three to FIVE starts because, during the time since I wrote the review, Apple started forcing developers to share what kinds of information the app collects, and (at least according to the developer) this app doesn't collect ANY inforamation at all. In addition, I've been using the 1Blocker firewall (which blocks apps from being able to connect to certain domains, such as analytics and tracking services) and this firewall doesn't report any attempts to connect to such services while I've been using this app. To the developer: THANK YOU for respecting peoples' privacy, by not trying to collect any data yourself, AND by not using any third-party frameworks which collect data without your knowledge.

This collection of card games is the most exhaustive of any app I've seen. It contains almost every card game I've ever played and many I'd never heard of. I purchased it specifically for Canasta, but have played some of the other games as well. Many are solitaire variants and others are multiplayer, but unfortunately you can only play against the AI. In some of the multiplayer games, like Canasta and Gin Rummy, the AI is relatively easy to beat, and they are only 2-player versions. Sheepshead on the other hand is a very challenging 3-player game. It would be nice to be able to adjust the difficulty of the AI and the number of players; even better to be able to play against other humans.

The app is strongest in the Solitaire department, but could be improved in quality and variety in the trick-taking and rummy type games. Contract Bridge is notably absent. Overall the poker games are disappointing, and I would not recommend it as a poker app.

All things considered, it's hours of entertainment for not very much money, and has many games you won't find anywhere else. The interface is solid overall and it has never been buggy or crashed for me.

This is really the best game app I’ve ever downloaded. I play this every day and I’ve still only scratched the surface of all the games available in the large collection. I have found a couple small bugs while playing, but they’re the type that you have to purposefully do something kind of weird in order to cause and therefore easy to avoid normally.

This is an essential app for anyone who likes card games, and, considering the number of different games that are included, very likely the best valued app in the entire app store.

Edit: One unavoidable bug I’ve found is that I’ll sometimes be dealt one or two extra cards in Crazy Eights. This puts me at an obvious disadvantage at being able to discard all my cards before the computer players who were each dealt the standard five cards, and the only solution is to quit and start a new game. I wasn’t in the habit of counting my cards because I assumed I was always getting a fair deal, but it turns out that I was often playing with an extra-card handicap.