Pool Party

"If you play pool in real life, don't play this"

While I will say that this game might be slightly enjoyable for those who don't really understand pool and just want some innocent family fun, the ball physics in this game are so horrible that they are laughable.

I have been playing real life pool seriously for almost eight years now, and I'm always on the lookout for a pool video game. Usually my disappointment with these games is that I'll miss easy shots that I wouldn't miss in real life, while at the same time making ridiculously thin cuts into the side pocket. In other words, the easy becomes hard and the hard becomes easy.

Pool Party, however, has no such flaw. What it does have, however, is almost no understanding of basic physics. My roommate and I discovered that if you hit a shot as hard as possible, the cue ball will come to a dead stop nearly every time, REGARDLESS OF THE ANGLE! A brief example: I shot at a ball that was roughly 2 inches off of the side rail, hitting about a 70 degree cut, center ball, with the direction of the cue ball being towards the rail. Hitting full power, the cue ball did not hit the rail after striking the object ball -- it just stopped dead in its tracks. The only time it doesn't come to a dead stop is when the cue ball will occasionally roll a couple inches in a seemingly random direction, usually in the opposite direction that it should go.

Additionally, the game's attempt at implementing masse is horribly misguided, as you can put an insane amount of masse on a shot while hitting the cue ball below center with a level stick. For those that don't know, masse is usually applied by hitting the cue ball above center and with the cue stick elevated.

To be fair, the ball collisions seem to happen as they should -- other than the cue ball's movement after hitting the object ball, as previously mentioned. Unfortunately, the way the cue ball moves around the table is probably the most important part of pool.

The only redeeming feature of this game is a game mode called "Killer", in which players alternate shots and are eliminated once they miss three shots. The only reason this is redeeming is because my roommate and I think that this could be a fun game to play in real life, not because of anything it adds to Pool Party.

Please save your time and don't waste even a rental on this game.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 09/12/07

Game Release: Pool Party (US, 09/05/07)