Hardwood Hearts

Hardwood Hearts is one of Silver Creek Entertainment's "Hardwood" line of card games. This game offers rounds of Hearts against computer players or three other online players. Rules of Hearts are followed exactly, and house rules can be set when creating a new table (such as scoring the Jack of Diamonds as -10, or allowing players to "shoot the moon" and/or sun). Team rules can also be set, placing two players cooperatively against the other two at the table. As with the other Hardwood titles, players can use animated "Fooms" to convey emotions to other players, such as luck, anger, or playfulness (throwing snowballs). A variety of different backgrounds can be selected, and some background themes come with optional ambient effects (like beach sounds). The presentation also has a bit of glitz, with sparkles coming off each Heart card played, or an ominous theme when the Queen of Spades is thrown down. After the New Xbox Experience, Hardwood Hearts was updated to include Xbox Avatar support.