International Cue Club

"Average Pool Sim, nothing special"

Jimmy White, Steve Davis, just two of the regulars on both the pool and snooker leagues and tournies, they would throw this in the bin in an instant! Well, what can I say, this game is so AVERAGE!!!! I bought this game thinking it would get me through when I had nothing else to play, how wrong I was....

This is a game with pool and billiards (Carom) in it, but for some strange reason they left out snooker! Now, I'm not a man who is into billiards, but I do like pool, but I'm more of a snooker man myself and the fact they left out snooker in this game is sacrilage!

Graphics - 5

The table itself is fine, but look beyond it, what do you see? Nothing, well not much anyway, you don't even see your character! even the table is nothing to behold, it's very plain, and the balls (no smutty jokes please!) are OK too, but nothing is this game is going to visually stun you, nothing whatsoever, it is so boring, no backdrop whatsoever.

Gameplay - 5
The good news, this game has pool, and it plays well, the bad news, it has billiards, not so good. Billiards in my opinion does not belong in a game, it is much more difficult than Pool, or Snooker, which they should have used instead.

Sound - 6
The best part of this game is the sound, the effects are what they should be, and the soundtrack's not too bad either, but even this is not very good, there should have been some licensed tracks, and maybe some commentary could have spiced things up a bit!

Replayability - 3
Apart from the fact there is puzzle mode, once you get past the tournament there is no reason whatsoever to play again, no unlockables, no higher tournament or anything, this game will last you a couple of days at the most, depending on just how good you are at billiard games. I personally completed the tournament in around 4 hours.

Value - 5
At £10 ($15), this game was cheap, and you can tell too! I don't expect this sort of mediochrity from any game I buy, even if it cost me just a tenner!

Summary:
Average graphics, sound, and gameplay
Virtually no 'I wanna play that again' factor
Not that good value either.

If you really wanna play Snooker or Pool, I suggest you buy World Championship Snooker 2003 or even PsOne's Jimmy White's Cueball 2, much better games in my opinion.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 09/18/03