Judge (Game & Watch)

Baccarat, especially in the Punto Banco style, is an incredibly simple and almost uninteractive card game. A few cards are dealt, added up, and the last digit in the number is compared between the player and the banker to see who lucked into having the higher number. If not for the fact money is being put on the line, it likely wouldn’t hold anyone’s attention, and in some ways, the Game & Watch title Judge is like a game of baccarat. Both players receive a number between 1 and 9, the higher number technically winning, but where this diverts from the card game is what comes next, as a high number isn’t always a guaranteed victory in Judge.

 

Judge features two identical human figures standing opposed to each other, the player assuming control of whichever one is on the side of the handheld system they choose to hold. These nearly identical figures hold a hammer ready in one hand, and when they raise the sign revealing their number, they need to make a choice. If their number is higher than the opponent’s a player should swing that hammer and lock in their points for the round. If their number is lower though, they should instead press the Dodge button. If you dodge quickly enough, you’ll avoid the other player’s hammer swing entirely and you actually end up being the one to profit from the round despite pulling the smaller number. The scoring system is what makes Judge more than a game of chance, especially since doing the wrong action will grant your opponent points as well.

Three points goes to any player who presses Hit and bonks the opposing player successfully when their own number is indeed higher, and a successful dodge when your number is lower will grant you two points instead. In the event of a tie it’s just a matter of who swings the hammer first, but should you press the wrong button, you’ll sacrifice some points instead. Dodge when you have the higher number and your anxiousness will lead to the opponent getting two points for free. If you swing your hammer when you aren’t meant to though, not only do you immediately grant the opponent two points, but they can then bring the hammer down and earn three more making for quite the costly mistake. The point system adds a decent amount of stakes for making the right call, and especially when playing against another human player, both players are going to need to quickly figure out which two numbers are in play and react swiftly if they want to earn points. The twitchy reactivity required to determine the results of a round in turn leads to occasional mistakes, especially since Judge doesn’t use a consistent countdown for when it’s time to see the signs and determine which action to take.

 

A single quick round of Judge starts with the two characters tapping a foot, waiting for the countdown. When the countdown does start, not only do you get a quick rhythmic set of three beeps to indicate the speed, but an indicator appears above the two characters made up of three black arrows. The foot tapping is actually your first clue to how quick you’ll need to be, the three beep countdown then signaling when it’s time to watch the signs and decide whether to Hit or Dodge. The speed varying means you at least always have to pay attention and thus errors are more likely and a player with sharp reflexes isn’t always going to run away with the game, but even though this was a smart way to prevent complacency, this is the full extent of everything going on in Judge.

With Game A pitting you against a slightly decent game-controlled player and Game B being the multiplayer option for two humans, you might be left wondering what the end goal is in Judge. The lofty score you need to achieve to be declared a winner of a game of Judge is actually a full on 99 points. That means, outside of the occasional lucky round where maybe you do get the 5 points for punishing an incorrect hammer swing, the minimum rounds to wrap up would be 33 assuming that somehow you got the higher number and always swung first. Naturally some room should exist for a lagging player to make a comeback so it’s not over too quickly, but unless you make a mutually agreed upon endpoint, players won’t be able to wrap up Judge quickly and likely grow rather tired of its simplistic action swiftly. Playing against the computer would definitely be a drag since it definitely won’t quit early, and while you can press the Time button at any point to switch the Game & Watch system back to its Watch form, that’s like saying you can finish a game by turning it off.

 

Unless you’ve placed down a bet on the outcome it’s hard to imagine Judge remaining entertaining for the period of time it expects you to play, and even if you do always wrap up well before the 99 points, you also presumably purchased this device that you do not want to play for any real length of time. It’s almost like asking someone to buy a game of rock-paper-scissors, that game essentially invented for quick decision making or only a few swift rounds rather than buckling down and playing it at length. The 99 points are also a hard cap, meaning there isn’t room for chasing high scores, making Judge a rather hard Game & Watch system to justify returning to.

THE VERDICT: Judge really is just about seeing who has the higher random number and acting accordingly, but this Game & Watch title did make some smart decisions by having hitting and dodging both worth some points and mistakes reward the opponent to punish sloppiness. A quick few rounds, trying to react as quickly as possible to the number reveal, and trading a few points back and forth works for a couple minutes, but with the end goal being to hit 99 points, it’s likely you’ll be hitting around 10 minutes of play and have lost interest in the game before then. Judge really is not a game concept worthy of a dedicated handheld, its ideas working in very small doses but not as a standalone title.

 

And so, I give Judge for Game & Watch…

A BAD rating. Judge would see a reappearance in the game WarioWare: Get It Together! where it is mixed in with a set of other minigames, cropping up as quick reflex test which has the added stakes of potentially ending your run if you make the wrong choice and can’t afford a mistake. This version of Judge even has variants like displaying the number in a different way or asking you to do quick addition to see if you won, making it a bit more difficult to make that judgment call. However, it still wouldn’t be great as a game you went out and bought, the idea too simple and not holding your attention unless you’ve tried to make more of the game than what it offers. Placing bets can help most any competition feel more intense though, and the 99 point total still feels a bit too high despite allowing for possible reversals of fortune. Perhaps when you start a round of Judge the game should allow you to set the end goal, tap the button a few times to set it for different ranges like 20 or 50 points. 99 can also feel like too large of a goal in that it makes specific rounds feel less notable, but a 20 point cap would make each round vitally and immediately important.

 

Trying to save the game design of Judge feels like a losing effort though. Its basics aren’t bad, in fact, they work well for a minigame, and that feels like what Judge should have always been. Stick it into something bigger and have it be a way to contribute to a greater goal. Standing alone as a game though puts too much focus on its simple design, its effectiveness fading when that’s all there is on offer. Too much of a mildly effective thing is not a good thing, but it feels like, despite it having a place, a burden was placed on it by having it carry the whole show. Of course, at the time of its release, handheld gaming was still very rudimentary, you couldn’t reasonably fit Judge into a package with other simple games for something that did work. It would at least beat out a very basic adaptation of baccarat since you do control your fate with the reasonable point system in place, but Judge is now just a curiosity. Perhaps you’ll poke at it a bit in Game & Watch Gallery 3 where it sits properly in a compilation and be better able to justify quitting before finishing a round, but on its own, Judge should be judged a bit harshly for its very basic offerings.