Last updated on January 15th, 2026 at 12:03 pm
Blackbird! – Card Game Review
Blackbird! is a Card/Casino game from Robert Wilson, first launched in 28th September 2012.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 6,802+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Blackbird! Stand Out
This game is similar to the classic ROOK® card game*.
Compete against the computer in this classic trick-taking game. Bid aggressively for the chance to declare trump. Take tricks with pointers to reach your bid or you’ll get set!
Play with two widely different rule sets (Kentucky Discard or Western Wyoming) or create your own set of rules to play with any of these options that can be on or off:
• Include 1's worth 15 points
• Low/high/10.5 Blackbird card
• Remove the Blackbird card
• Allow Blackbird card to be played anytime
• Winning bidder leads the first trick
• Red 1 worth 30 points
• Adjustable game winning score
• Bonus for taking most tricks
• and more!
Get awarded when you complete achievements and challenge your friends to complete them. Have fun looking at all of the statistics that are tracked so that you can analyze how you play.
- This is not in any way endorsed by or affiliated with Hasbro, Inc. ROOK® is a registered trademark of Hasbro, Inc.
This Card game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Blackbird! is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 28th October 2024
Recent improvements include:
Themes are now free!
Several general fixes and updates
Download & Availability
Blackbird! is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Im learning to play and want to get better fast and this helps a lot. The people we play with have house rules we wish we could have control over in the settings to make it better practice for us. 1. Person left of dealer begins bidding 2. One card of widow is shown to all players before bidding begins 3. Nine card widow, rather than five 4. Aggressive/Brave bidding (no bids under 130 in our group) 5. Whoever takes the bid/widow leads first trick.
We love the customization behind this app and you can play so many different Rook variations. Our favorites are 1-High Partnership and The Red 1.
What happened to multiplayer? Are you going to bring it back.
Great game. Any plans for a multiplayer version.
We remember as a kid playing this with our grandparents. Our sister, her husband and ourselves are the only ones that really know how to play this game around us. Being able to play on this app has been a joy. We wish it was live and you were able to play with other players and not just the computer.
We enjoy playing but its plain that whoever programmed doesnt know the games ins and outs.
Multiplayer please! Multiplayer please! Multiplayer please! Multiplayer please! Multiplayer please! Multiplayer please! Multiplayer please! Multiplayer please! Multiplayer please.
Love the game!! But PLEASE BRING BACK MULTIPLAYER.
This is the game we grew up playing with our whole family. Exact same rules as we used. We have spent hours playing this, Im excited to have this game mobile.
Great game, if you grew up playing rook, you will know theres rule variations by region. This app has all the options to configure the way you want to play. Also AI of computers are very well programmed (they dont make stupid plays).
The AI isnt great. They will hold a point card, like a 14, when playing it would set u and instead throw off. And thats when u know their partner is gonna win the trick. They will hold best cards to the end, so if u have bid and already shown u have greens as an off suit and by the last trick the 13 is the boss. The will throw away the 13 on the 2nd to last trick and keep a 1 or 14 of another suit Even though u have already trumped that suit. There needs to be a way u can make your partner bid. The game can be on the line and they will fold at a low bid. The computer will keep a 10 (point card) and discard a 9 of their off suit and then lose the 10 during play. When they could just discard the 10 and win the last trick and get it. Its keepingt it safe that way. Discard points into the widow to not lose them. Theres a lot more but its ok game. Can set your own rules.
We love this app – it's fun and pretty well made. Sometimes it obviously plays the wrong card but we guess people do that too – all in all we would highly recommend it.
There needs to be an online option.
We cant seem to Continue a game anymore. We really love having this app; its a game we used to play with our grandma. We just wish we could continue our games again.
This is the only Rook app we can find that will let you play Red 1 as trump which is great but would love to enjoy multiplayer with friends and family. The app has an achievement to unlock when you play multiplayer but there is no option to do so.
Game has changed and anytime you lead game it starts over. It used to remember where you were in the game and restart where you stopped. We dont play nearly as much since it has changed.
We love the app and it would be a 5 star from us if they would update the rules to where trump cannot be played until Trump is broke.
After the recent update, the Continue option does not work so you lose the current game you are playing. Better finish before you exit or it will be lost. Correction to the app needs to be done to restore the Continue option.
If you like the game of Rook you will love this game! You can set the rules to rook game rules. Our biggest and really only complaint is your playing computers and your partner will hold the rook card and cause you to have to waste trump cards and allow opponents to get unnecessary points before playing it. Also, the rook is supposed to be a trump card only! And should not be allowed to be thrown whenever! Only when you dont have a color and are trumping and whenever trumps lead out. In this game the computer players throw the rook to pull cards when they have the color that was played. The computer that they pair you with is awful and rarely plays point cards when its obvious that the opponents are playing a smaller card than the high card that still hasnt been played. Your partner on this game holds point cards and doesnt throw them when its obvious the opponents are not getting the catch.
All time favorite. We like this cause is so like Rook. Its our dad favorite game and he taught us.
It allows you adjust the rules so you are playing advanced Rook rather than the basic version.
This is a 5 star game. We just wish they would give us multiplayer. Especially since a challenge for a medal is to play multiplayer games.
All time favorite. We like this cause is so like Rook. Its our dad favorite game and he taught us.
Love this game and thanks to the developer who brings this to the App Store but we do wish they would make it possible to play and connect with your friends instead of the computer all the time. It would be worth paying a little to be able to do that.
In playing this it has helped with our memory problem with early Dementia. Thank you it has given m a lot of tricks for Rook & we have enjoyed playing this game.
We love this version of Rook its like we place. We hadnt played in a long time, but we tried to play and it wont deal the cards everytime. Anyone else having these issues.
Great game! We wish it had multi player or you could play online with others.
We just enjoy playing this game!! It like and of mystery and luck.
Great game! Please, please, please add multiplayer! We would have like 10 people download it to play with them. Also adding 5 players. When the bidder wins the bid, then he can pick a card to be his partner. Thats our favorite way to play.
Its is the best one and there are only like 3 other options but none of then even come close to this one. Our family definitely wants to get it because we play rook every year at christmas because its the only time we all together so having this would be amazing. However we have one simple suggestion. We normally play Kentucky style but with winning score being 500 hundred and minimum bid being 75 which we can set up and thats great. However the one thing its missing is that when we play a physical game we have the option to float during bidding which simply means we dont bid anything so we can see what our partner does but the person who starts the bid cant float on his first bid and neither can the second person to bid both of them are required to bid on their first bid before anyone can float but after the first two bids anyone can float pass or bid as usual. We can do without out it but we assume it would be a simple option you could add when making a new rule set. Other than that please add multiplayer yes ik this game is dying but im not finna let it we will have a vintage 100th anniversary set coming in soon still sealed and im definitely gonna open them on tiktok and show people how to play and revive this game. But definitely add and online multiplayer mode with random matchmaking and the ability to make a private room where the host is given a code to share with their friends or family to join. And for figuring out who makes first bid on first round you could simply make it random and then after the first round make it so the next player bids first the next round so it just goes around clockwise as usual.
We enjoy the game. Rules can be modified to be very similar to the rules that we play by. A couple of things that we wish could be added. 1. The option to call a new deal. 2. Option to be able to shoot the moon. We think the computer players bid too conservative. And during game play do not throw out points when partner might have the catch.
Multiplayer option would make this perfect.
Very fun game. However, their needs to be some changes to Gameplay mechanics. The most obvious is when you throw away a counter to the nest. The bidder has to raise his/her bid. Example: bid – 120, threw away a red and yellow 5. Bid must go up 10 to 130. Also you never play Trump on the first hands. The A.we. Throw Trump every time until everyone is out. You save your highest Trump so you can get the last Trick worth 20 points. There should be an option to play 4-8 players. Partners 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4. If 5 or 7 players then call for your partner. How that works is the bidder calls for the card they need (black bird, or Aces) and that round the bidder and the person they call on are partners. We really hope the developer of this game sees our comment because this game is awesome just needs some quality of life improvements.
We love this app with its flexibility for multiple rules.
Game is awesome. Growing up our family always played Rook and this only way we can play now.
This game is awesome! We play it 3-4 times a week.
Room was one of our favorite family card games when we were younger. No one plays it much anymore. With our partner Zeus, we beat up on Athena and Poseidon. 5 Stars.
Fun game. We like that you can make your own rules and set it like we almost play. Needs support to keep it from locking up while playing on multiplayer mode. ADD THE LITTLE BIRD.
Love to play Rook…. Miss terribly the opportunity to play with real people.
During covid 19 pandemic it would be nice to play with loved ones.
We absolutely LOVE this game and have enjoyed it for many years. With being quarantined, Id LOVE it if we could play this online with the multiplayer option!!!!! Otherwise we have no complaints. Great job.
We would love to play with our sister. Will this feature be offered again.
Fun game to play. Some luck but also strategy involved.
We grew up playing rook. We found blackbird and play it all the time! Love it.
This game is a lot of fun, but Zeus does not always play good defense and we have to play differently than we would play with a human partner! This causes a lot of missed opportunities to set the opposition, when we could have easily have set bid.
Due to our love for Rook, we enjoy this game. We probably play it more often than any other game on our IPad. This game allows one to adjust the game to fit your preferred version.
Wish partner was a little more knowledgeable about the game. Most times it seems you are playing against 3 opponents. Most times we bid / play like we have no partner because partner sure does not help. He will trump a trick you already have caught only to then throw an off suit card which the opponents score big on.
We love your game its very hard to figure out whos biding though, we cant tell whether Im bidding against an opponent or our partner, it plays will, but doesnt bid to high and we alway get the bid.
Love playing room to relax at night. A tremendous game that we truly enjoy.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.8.0
- Size: 38.38 MB
- iOS: 16.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: Robert Wilson
Last updated: 28th October 2024 | Genre: Card, Casino | Developer: Robert Wilson