The game features three modes: Single Match, Multiplayer and Challenge. As you would expect, Single Match is your basic competition between yourself and a computer player, however you can select to play against another human player on one console if you have a sibling who’s eager to show you their skill. Don’t think multiplayer is left at that however, Actua Pool supports wireless single-card play for up to four players. Challenge mode is the main meat of the game which sees you travel from club to club, paying a standard entrance fee to compete in a tournament. Should you win, you’ll obtain prize money which can be spent on – you guessed it – more entrance fees. It’s a real shame there wasn’t something else to spend prize money on such as new cues which increase your maximum power level or even new music tracks because once you’ve mastered the game and are able to beat your opponents with ease, there’s just nothing else to do. Aside from this, there’s nothing entirely different between the clubs apart from visual changes, entrance fee pricing and the amount of opponents you have to beat to win the tournament. Also, given the premise is your traveling from club to club playing in tournaments, it would’ve been nice if there was, for instance, a crowd cheering you on whenever you scored a shot or perhaps even some gloating from your opponents. It just would've given the game something extra to add to the experience.
In terms of the game types you’ll have to choose from, there are three including 8-Ball, 9-Ball and “Mix,” a random selection between 8-Ball and 9-Ball. Just to clarify for the lesser pool enthusiasts reading this, 8-Ball is where one player aims to get all the striped balls into the pockets while the other player aims for the full-coloured balls. After getting all their balls into the pockets, players can then aim for the black 8-ball. 9-Ball is a little different. Instead of aiming for different patterned balls, players have to aim for the ball which is in numerical order (1, 2, 3 etc) and providing it is the first ball that is hit, any other ball (expect for the 9-ball) may enter the pockets. Once balls 1-8 are in the pockets, it’s a shootout for the 9-ball.
Your opponent hopes you'll get blinded by the stars.
The top screen of the DS is used as a camera to view the whole table while the touch screen has a 2D bird’s eye view of the table with several icons on the sides which allocate several different gameplay mechanics. You can position the horizontal setting of the cue, change the camera angles of the top screen, music and even highlight the balls on the touch screen display that you’re allowed to aim for. When it comes to hitting the cue ball however, don’t expect to use a sliding motion on the touch screen that, based on your speed, translates to how hard you hit the ball. Instead you’ll have to drag a pool stick (located to the right of the touch screen) which acts as a power meter and then tap a button which makes your cue hit the cue ball. Not exactly braking new ground is it? It seems the developers even picked up on this because for everything the touch screen can do, there’s an alternative on the face and shoulder buttons. Still though, the gameplay itself remains solid enough to retain a pool enthusiast’s interest as the essence of 8-Ball and 9-Ball has been captured by the developers to stay true to the real life.
There are however a few moments that create some annoyance. Firstly, in the menu screen, when you tap a selection, there appears to be a slight problem with the game going to your desired screen, as it doesn’t want to register what you’ve told it to do. After a bit of tinkering, we discovered it was because the game has been programmed to detect two taps that are less than a fraction of a second apart. Sure, it sounds a bit stupid to bring it up in a review but it’s something that is somewhat of a standard in DS games and there’s no excuse for the game to have this problem. Secondly, it is a little easy to win matches simply by putting your cue at a maximum power hit and getting the cue ball to hit the target at a random angle. We actually won several matches by doing this and only taking better care when there was one or two balls left on the table.
Graphically, there is little to be impressed with. The balls look a little on the chunky side and as previously stated, there’s only some visual changes to distinguish the different clubs apart. You can change the camera of the top screen to different views including a 3D bird’s eye view of the table and the cue balls perspective of the table (first person view). Sadly, there are a few moments when shots are difficult to make simply because you can’t grasp if the cue ball can, for example, make it between two balls to reach the only ball you are allowed to hit
An orange on the pool table?
The in-game music sounds a lot like an 80’s B-grade film and more often than not, you’ll find yourself either turning down the volume or switching the sound off in the options menu. It’s particularly a shame when you do this because without music, the game looses much of its appeal because the pub atmosphere is no longer there. There is however, the option of switching between the different clubs’ music tracks but you’ll struggling to even find one you like and can listen to for more than an hour.
In the end, Actua Pool can only be recommend if you’re somebody who goes down to the pub every Friday and/or Saturday night to play pool for a few hours. Besides the games of 8-Ball and 9-Ball themselves, there isn’t too much more on offer that will keep you coming back for more.
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