Pocket Pool Review




Disclosure: We may earn a commission from links on this page

Developer: Conspiracy Entertainment Publisher: Eidos
Release Date: April 18, 2007 Also On: None

Quick, can you think of anything dumber than Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and the 42nd president of the United States combined? Okay, so Pocket Pool isn’t that bad, not even as dumb as George. Still, you have to admit that the idea of combining pictures of bikini-suited women, and even more provocative at times, with pool is a dumb idea. It at least ranks up there with spam (the food, not the e-mails), Vanilla Coke and the Dead or Alive movie.

I probably would still fault Eidos for attempting to cash-in on a sexually deprived, immature audience, but when you also make a flat out lousy game, I’m going to write a paragraph like the one above. Sure, you can shoot pool in more than ten different games, including 8-ball, 9-ball and snooker. You can also choose from different ball sets, tables and locations to shoot your game. Yet none of that matters in a pool game if the engine is fundamentally flawed.

And it is in Pocket Pool. First off, while the controls aren’t atrocious, they should have taken advantage of the analog nub better. You think that in a pool game, you would use the analog nub to take your shot. Not in this game. You simply line it up, press circle to open the shooting meter and press right on the control pad to shoot. That’s it. You can increase the speed by pressing up on the control pad and have the option of moving the position on the cue ball. It’s nothing fancy, it’s doable, just could have been done better.

The real problem with Pocket Pool, other than its lack of class, is the physics system and AI. The balls just don’t seem to hit right. I found that breaking at the start of a game is quite difficult to break up the racked balls. The balls in general seem either overly flat or bouncy, depending on the strength of your shot. There is no real balance to Pocket Pool, and that’s where the problem lies. You might get away with physics issues in other sports games, but in pool, it is the essence of the game. Finally, the last complaint I have in terms of the gameplay engine is the computer is flawless.

I’m not going to waste my time writing, talking or playing Pocket Pool anymore. It makes my brain hurt thinking about it. I’ve played a lot of bad PSP games in my day, just recently Pocket Racers and Street Supremacy. This ranks up there as one of the worst. Whether or not you can get this for cheap, it is not worth buying. You would be buying a PSP game with a broken gameplay engine, AI with godly shooting abilities and dreadful sound, not to mention one of the worst game concepts in years.

Graphics: 5
Sound: 2
Gameplay: 2
Creativity: 0
Replay Value/Game Length: 2
Final: 1.7
Written by Kyle Review Guide

Leave a Comment