Pool Party

Rating Everyone Genre sports Publisher Southpeak Interactive External Links Official Nintendo Website

Grab your Wii and your stick and head to the Pool Hall in Pool Party for the Nintendo Wii home console. With thirteen (13) different types of pool, including 9-Ball, 8-Ball, Rotation, Black Jack and Snooker, there’s a game of billiards to satisfy any pool shark. You will be hustlin’ pros in dive bars, honky-tonks, mansions and even luxury yachts. Pool Party includes competitors with intelligent AI and tables with real-world physics. Rack ‘em and smack ‘em!

Ignore the above paragraph and continue to read on.

I’ve been spending time in a local bar hanging out with friends and playing pool pretty much every night. When I got the call that I’d be reviewing Pool Party for the Wii, I was pretty psyched. Unfortunately, that was soon put to an end. From the minute of starting Pool Party, I, and the few people who were trying the game out with me, were simply distraught with thoughts of playing this game. However, we pressed on.

Time after time, I’ve seen billiards games come and go. Every time, I see the same control system and the same style. Pool Party is no different. In reality, it’s almost a 3D remake of an old NES pool game. Each of the main pool games allow for two-player modes, while time attack and practice are only one player. Aside from that you've got a few options to change things up: eight rooms, eleven tables, five ball sets, ten cues, six characters, thirty-one songs, and three different table speeds. Select your options, play the game, rinse, and repeat. That's the entire game. No player customization, no attribute boosts for different equipment, and no campaign or tournament modes. It's literally just a step above the Wii Play pool mini-game.

What isn't a step above Wii Play is the control, which does very little to make this game a Wii title at all. The entire interface is all handled via IR, but once you get into the main game things get far too simplistic for what we'd expect nearly a year after system launch. You can either control your aim via IR by holding A, or move the cursor around with the analog stick on the nunchuk Holding Z. Moving your left hand controls a rubber-banded camera, while C will change to specific camera views.

Shooting is a total mess. Once you line up your shot, you'll hold the B trigger. Rather than just shooting like Wii Play allows, having your pull-back determine the power of the shot, you'll instead tweak an on-screen power bar with the analog stick and then stab the Wii-mote forward to "shoot." It's weak, it feels totally tacked on, and there's nothing that makes it an actual Wii experience. Your Wii-mote action doesn't factor into the shot at all, so it's basically just a button press mapped to the remote itself. To make matters worse, the computer A.I. boarders between moronic and simply amazing, taking a ton of time to "think" about a shot, including an on-screen status percentage bar. For no reason, your opponent will suddenly pull off three, four, or five-wall shots, sinking balls that would be nearly impossible in real life.

As for the audio/visual package, Pool Party is a lighter mess. The interface screens are basic at best, and the in-game visuals are easily surpassed by Xbox Live Arcade games or early PlayStation limits. Character art is extremely generic, music is about as standard as can be, and whatever limited video and sound effects that are included have a tin-like, low quality sound to them. Web games have stronger overall presentation than this.

While the technical sharpness of Pool Party can make for some entertaining moments, the wealth of indignities presented here makes for an unappealing package. The purest fun to be had might just be in the practice mode, which allows you to place any ball anywhere and set up some satisfying trick shots. If you are intrigued by such feats, then steel yourself against irritation and give this game a rent. All others are advised to seek their pool fix elsewhere.