''Lost Cities'' is

card game A card game is any game that uses playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, whether the cards are of a traditional design or specifically created for the game (proprietary). Countless card games exist, including famil ...

for the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

, based upon the popular card game of the same name by game designer

Reiner Knizia Reiner Knizia () is a prolific German-style board game designer. He was born in West Germany in 1957 and earned a doctorate in Mathematics from the University of Ulm before designing games full time. He is frequently included on lists of the gre ...

, published by

Vivendi Games Vivendi Games (formerly known as CUC Software, Cendant Software, Havas Interactive, Vivendi Universal Interactive Publishing and Vivendi Universal Games) was an American video game publisher and holding company based in Los Angeles. It was foun ...

under their

Sierra Online Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game gen ...

division and developed by

Sierra Online Shanghai Sierra (Spanish for "mountain range" or "mountain chain" and "saw", from Latin ''wikt:serra#Latin, serra'') may refer to the following: Places Mountains and mountain ranges * Sierra de Juárez, a mountain range in Baja California, Mexico * Sie ...

, formally known as ''Studio Ch'in''. The game was released on April 23, 2008. It has since disappeared from

Xbox Live Arcade Xbox Live Arcade (or XBLA) was a video game Digital distribution in video games, digital distribution service that was available for the Xbox (console), Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles. It focused on smaller downloadable games from both major publisher ...

Gameplay

The gameplay is identical to the card game: each player is dealt eight cards, which consist of 5 "suits" that represent individual expeditions, with each "suit" consisting of 3 Investment cards which multiply the value of an expedition, and 9 Expedition Cards numbered 2 through 10. The players are dealt 8 cards and build their expeditions by stacking the numbers in increasing order, and may draw from the deck or the 5 discard piles. The round ends when all of the cards have been played or discarded. The round is scored by subtracting 20 from the value of each expedition, and multiplying each with the Investment cards. Failure to achieve 20 points in each expedition results in a negative score for that attempt, or no points if a total of 20 is exactly made. Investments in a failed expedition exacerbates the negative score. A game consists of three rounds. The player with the most points accumulated after the rounds wins the game.

Features

''Lost Cities'' featured leaderboards and online multiplayer through

Xbox Live The Xbox network, formerly known and commonly referred to as Xbox Live, is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Gaming for the Xbox brand. It was first made available to the origina ...

, including support for the

Xbox Live Vision Xbox Live Vision is a webcam accessory that was developed as an accessory for the Xbox 360 video game console. It was announced at E3 2006 and was released in North America on September 19, 2006, Europe and Asia on October 2, 2006, and Japan on ...

camera. When playing offline, players could play against one of three different computerized (AI) opponents, each corresponding to a different difficulty level. Lastly, in addition to allowing standard two player games, ''Lost Cities'' included alternate rules to support four player (two vs. two) matches.

Reception

''Lost Cities'' has been praised for "finely tuned balance of luck and skill...that made Lost Cities a hit with card- and board-game fans, and this version just makes all of that even better." in a review by

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

's TeamXbox writer David Chapman. While Chapman praised the "Simple gameplay", another IGN reviewer, Ryan Geddes suggested the title's gameplay lacked depth. As of May 2009, the game has an aggregate score of 66/100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

Delisting

In early 2009, Lost Cities was removed from the Xbox Live Marketplace. At the time, it was only the second game for which this has happened. No official reason was given for the removal, but speculation centered on copyright issues over the merger of Activision and Vivendi, the latter being the parent company of Sierra, publisher of Lost Cities.

References

{{notelist 2008 video games Digital card games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in China Vivendi Games games Xbox 360 games Xbox 360 Live Arcade games Xbox 360-only games

Gameplay

Features

Reception

Delisting

See also

References