Las Vegas Dream

Vegas Stakes (titled Las Vegas Dream in Japan) is a casino simulation game developed by Dice, co-developed by HAL Laboratory, and published by Nintendo. The game is a spiritual sequel to Vegas Dream (NES).

The player takes on the role of a protagonist which they name. They travel to Vegas by car with their friends Cliff, Richard, Isabelle, and Maria. They only serve as a cosmetic purpose, and are not different from each other. However, they will give the player advice while playing a casino game, and will sometimes join you in a game of poker.

The game features 3 play modes; Vegas Adventure, the main story mode of the game, multi-player, and a continue option. A fourth option, Party Mode, is present only in the Japanese original.

There are five casinos in the game. Some of which are based on real casinos, and others are not. Instead of the HAI Palace in Vegas Dream, there is The Hideaway, the Golden Paradise (based off the Golden Nugget, and is where the game starts), the Buffalo Head, The 2020, and the Laurel Palace (based off Caesars Palace). The latter must be unlocked by winning a certain amount of money. The casinos have betting minimums and maximums for each game. The Hideaway has the cheapest betting ranges, while the Laurel Palace has the most expensive. The Golden Paradise is the medium. The game offers a save option via battery backup, so the player can continue from where they left off.

Each casino has five games; Blackjack, Slot Machines, Roulette, Craps, and Poker. Like its predecessor, you will occasionally run into people that ask for money, which can either have a positive or negative effect on the player based on their decision. Each casino has some interesting characters to run into. For example, in The Hideaway, there's a shabby-looking man who will ask for money, whereas in The 2020, there's a man who looks like he's half human half machine. Each casino has its own theme in terms of graphics and music; The Hideaway has a slow-jazzy theme to add to the overall run-down feel of the casino, the Golden Paradise has an upbeat jazzy theme which fits with the nice-looking casino, and the Laurel Palace contains an elegant organ piece, which bodes well with the ancient Roman look and feel of the casino.

The game was later released for the Wii Virtual Console.

Generally, you can review the controls (keyboard) setting during each game in the screen before it starts. Use the arrow keys and “Z”, “X”, “A”, “S”, “Q”, “E” buttons to play, or customize yourself with your gamepad or keyboard.