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Update: When we originally reviewed Hearts Tournament we were unable to experience the Multiplayer experience because it had not been officially released. Now that it’s been out for a few weeks we jump back in to play a game of cards with real people.

Setting up or jumping into one or several Multiplayer games is easy. If you’ve played Words With Friends (or other similar games) than you’ll know what to expect. You can be playing simultaneously from a queue of games and when it’s your turn you’ll be prompted to make your move…go back at a later time to make another move and so forth. This is a great way to play multiplayer games without taking a huge chunk of your time all at once.

On the down side is that unless you are playing against your friends, finding people to play multiplayer is sparse. So sparse that I couldn’t get a full game going with strangers. With that said, the lack of available players is not Hearts Tournament’s fault and the shortage is expected with any new game (unless it’s coming from a large publisher) and hopefully overtime the multiplayer crowd will build up to what it deserves.

There’s something addicting about Shooting the Moon or blocking another player during a game of Hearts.  It’s because of this addiction that I used to sneak out of the house on a school night to play cards with my equally cool friends. Was I a rebel because of Hearts. Absolutely. Now times have changed, I no longer have to sneak out of the house ( no I don’t live in my parents basement…anymore) and I can play it anywhere.

The latest Hearts app that’s reminding me of my “rebel without a cause” days is Hearts Tournament. As a Hearts app it brings everything that I look for including multiple difficulties, clear User Interface, along with the AI slightly surpassing my expectations. So if you play on easy, the AI won’t make stupid mistakes, instead the strategy will become more vulnerable and obvious and on hard the AI’s strategy is much more challenging to predict. Because of all of this Hearts Tournament easily brings one of the better single player Hearts experience to the iOS as of yet.

If you’re not interested in a single player experience, not to worry, Hearts Tournament brings a fleshed out multiplayer experience. How does playing up to 30 games at once sound? Pretty nifty. I know. We received the app before it’s release so we won’t be able to fully review the multiplayer experience until a later date.

Often games include Achievements and generally we don’t feel the need to mention them at this point. However, once in awhile the Achievements include a novel take which is the case with Hearts Tournament. Hearts Tournament highlights each achievement with a new deck of cards. So if you want that really cool deck (like the wolf howling at the moon), you’re going to need to earn the “Shoot the Moon” achievement or whatever achievement it is to unlock the wanted deck. This one aspect may seem small but it entices one to unlock more to see what’s next!

The Bottom Line: 8.5/10

If you’re a Hearts addict like myself, Hearts Tournament brings a fantastic single player experience and the Multiplayer experience is great if you can rustle up a group of friends.