Revenge of the Nerts

What surprised me the most about Nerts!: Online wasn't that Zachtronics made a new cards-only game, nor that they made a multiplayer game -- it's that, I didn't think anyone else knew about "multiplayer solitaire." I always thought that was a weird thing my family did.

The rules of Nerts are a little different from the game I grew up with, but the objective is roughly the same: play cards from your personal solitaire deck into the suit-specific piles shared among all players. It's a race to deplete your own deck (or at least, some part of your deck) as quickly as possible, and when one of your friends snipes a pile position from you, you yell expletives at them in voice chat.

Aside from some odd audio choices - each round starts with a forced pause for fanfare, yet there's no background music during the game? - Nerts!: Online is surprisingly well-polished. Basic gameplay works flawlessly, even showing other players' card and cursor movements in real-time. And the interface is elegantly simple and easy to understand.

Ongoing updates may make it look like this game is far from finished, but aside from rule-customization options (and maybe some music!), this feels like a pretty complete experience to me. It's a simple and straightforward excuse to curse at my friends online.