What Is Boxing Solitaire?
The Short Answer
Boxing solitaire is a card game for one player in which a deck of playing cards stands in for a prizefight. You sit alone with the deck, the way you would for any solitaire. The deck is the other fighter.
Mickey Palooka is a boxing solitaire game. It's set in 1920, and it's coming soon to Steam, iPhone, iPad and Mac.
What The Cards Mean
Black cards, the spades and clubs, are his punches. The number is how hard each one lands.
Red diamonds are your punches. Each one can do either of two jobs. Throw a 9 and it takes 9 off him. Wear it as your block and it stops up to 9 of what he throws.
Red hearts are recovery. A heart goes to your corner and does nothing at all until he knocks you down. Then everything saved there cashes at once and you get up. With nothing saved, you don't.
How A Round Works
Every round puts 6 cards face up. You have to play 4 of them. The 2 you leave come back next round marked with a dot, and then you have to play them.
That rule is the whole game. You can't pass on a big punch forever. You can only decide when to face it, and what you'll have in your hands when you do.
Why The Order Matters
Your block only meets punches in falling order. Block an 8 and it will still meet a 5 afterwards. Block the 5 first and the 8 walks straight through. Putting on a fresh diamond resets it.
So sometimes the right play is to take a small punch on the chin and keep your block clean for the big one behind it.
How A Fight Ends
Take his health to 0 and he's knocked out, in any round. Go 12 rounds and the judges decide: you need enough damage on the cards and you need to be standing.
You lose if you're knocked down with nothing in your corner, if you go down a third time, or if you go down in round 12.
Why It Feels Like Solitaire
It's played alone, at your own pace, with nothing hidden in the rules. There's no dealer working against you and nothing is held back to help you. Each fight is one shuffle, and every number on the table came off the deck.
Why It Feels Like Boxing
You get hit. There's no way to play a round without taking something, so every round is a choice between taking it now, blocking it, or putting it off at a price. A fight has the shape of a fight: a feeling out round, a bad round you have to survive, and a bell you're glad to hear.
What Mickey Palooka Adds
A reason to win. You owe a bookmaker named Abe Saltz $3,600 and you have 10 weeks on the road to clear it, from New York to Los Angeles. Each week you pick one of 50 named men off the bill. Before each fight the bookmaker posts a board of bets on you, in fictional money, and some nights there's an envelope asking you to take a dive.
