While many, many people enjoy spending their days and nights at that the local billiards (myself included), the time consuming and social sport of Pool will never seem to be able to translate well into videogame form. When playing a Pool videogame, the thrill of competition is somehow lost entirely, and thus becoming very difficult to find some degree of entertainment within the game.
Perhaps, thinking that my opinion could possibly change, I decided to give Archer Maclean’s Pool Paradise a try… While not all too enthralling, Pool Paradise is one of the better Pool games I’ve played in my lifetime, but at the same time, one of the biggest disappointments a dollar bill has helped me purchase.
Specially commissioned ambient music to accompany your Pool Paradise experienceIf you haven’t been able to catch on from the game’s title, Pool Paradise takes place on a tropical island setting; a key trait that easily separates the game from anything like it released before its existence. This setting undoubtedly affects the atmosphere of the game as each option/action in the game’s menu and career mode is represented by a different hut. Of course, the wildlife adds to this atmosphere as well, but all of this would be nothing without the game’s soothing and surprisingly well composed soundtrack. While players may sometimes forget one even exists (because it’s meant compliment the game’s lounge-like setting), the handful of tropical and trance inspired tracks featured in the game are truly memorable and worth turning up the volume a bit for. Additionally, the game’s colorful visuals add to the atmosphere as well, however, they’re fairly unimpressive, yet solid (in terms of frame rate). While the animated hands are, “interesting” to say the least, the low poly comprised surroundings don’t cause things to look all that attractive... When all of this comes together, the game presents players with an atmosphere that is somewhat relaxing, but as we all know, for a game like Pool Paradise, in the end all that matters is gameplay.
I’m going to have to admit, that at times while playing Pool Paradise I felt like I had been forcing myself to stay awake. The game’s shot setup and hand animations dreadfully affect the pace of the game, making it feel that upon completion of single match-up, a good thirty minutes have passed. Oddly, that may not be much of an over exaggeration since when in a match-up with a 14:1 rule set, thirty minutes could easily be consumed. Then again, this could mean that there’s plenty of time to spend with Pool Paradise, but unfortunately most players may not want to spend much time with the game at all.
Unfortunately, the game’s slow pace can become unnecessarily frustrating and incredibly unattractive to most players, easily turning them away from the game upon the first few minutes of gameplay. However, those willing enough to stick around may learn to appreciate the games accurate recreation of ball physics, which is without question the best I’ve ever experienced in a Pool videogame. There’s something about intentionally sending the cue-ball off the table, just like I’ve done many times in real life, that I just find impressing. Seeing everything react the way it should is sign of polish within the game’s physics engine.
The game’s analog shooting function, which is performed by moving the analog stick up and down, works extremely well for the most part. Only in a few instances did I feel that my shots lacked the amount of power that should’ve been delivered with the quick and hard jerk motion performed on my game pad’s analog stick. Additionally, the game’s default camera tends to follow each match-ups shot well. However, if the cue-ball somehow finds its way into a far corner on the table, the cue will actually be protruding into a player’s line of sight, causing a bit of difficulty when attempting to set up a shot, and unfortunately the overhead, and other alternate camera angles, don’t help things much either.
As for the game’s gameplay modes, there’s a nice variety to be found, even the inclusion of a semi cool skeeball bonus game, but like most games which feature a gameplay mode of a similar nature, player’s will spend most of their time with the game’s career mode. In a nutshell, the point of the game’s career mode is to take your player through numerous match-ups and tournaments against the humorously named CPU players found in the game. Win, and earn enough money and you make it to the top of the ranks. Lose, and you’ll be in debt to the island’s loan shark, who in actuality (in the game at least) is a shark. Often enough, you’ll experience your fair share of wins and losses, sometimes more defeats than players can actually withstand thanks to the sometimes unfair difficulty of the game’s opponent AI. At times they can be defeated easily, as they continuously make foolish shots. While at others, they’ll hit some of the most difficult shots and then proceed to kick your ass the whole game through. In addition, the amount of different rule types you’ll run into add plenty of variety in the game, and will keep things fresh for quite some time. That is until you become sick of the game and begin to feel pity for your weary eyes, whose only desire is to get some rest in the form of sleep, a state of relaxation that can be thanked to the boring experience Pool Paradise delivers.
While Pool Paradise may offer a solid game of videogame Pool, it lacks the appeal to keep gamers coming back. The controls are tight, the physics are spot on, but even with those positive traits, the game is just too slow paced to enjoy. At times I felt as if the only reason I kept playing was to write up this critique. I can’t imagine how others would react if they lacked this motivation.
