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34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Ok game with very annoying and frustrating features...., September 9, 2007
Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: Pool Party (Video Game)
Pool Party is ok but let me outline the pros and cons of this game.
Pros:
- Nice graphics = Great colors and imagery
- Somewhat realistic gameplay
- As you win games you unlock new items such as pool tables, cue sticks, music, and environments
- Different types of pool games such as 8-ball, 9-ball, snooker, etc.
Cons:
- Lack of general options(this will be further discussed in my other points)
- Not a lot of characters to choose from
- Annoying sound effects = You can turn off the background sounds and/or general sound effects. But who wants a completely silent game? That's no fun. So I opt to leave the background sounds off but I keep the general sound effects on. However with that, you get irritating sounds such as, applause every time you hit a ball into a pocket, bells that sound when it's your turn and a buzzer sound when you lose a turn.
- The balls are not clearly marked = Depending on the positioning of the ball on the table sometimes you can't tell the difference between stripes and solids. I've hit my opponent's ball in by accident a few times because I thought his or her solid was my stripe.
- No continuous play = The game doesn't keep going after you win. You can save your win but you have to start over and choose your options all over again.
- No tournaments, championships, prizes to win besides unlocking items, or anything to make this a truly fun, challenging or realistic game
- When you have ball-in-hand, you have to go to the options to move the ball
- A large version of the character or player you chose very strangely stays at the lower left hand corner of the screen. There is no way to turn this off. I would say the character takes up about 25% or the screen. The character is not transparent so if you have to make a shot to the left corner pocket at the bottom of the screen, the character blocks your shot and you can't see the pocket you're shooting into. In order to make the character a little more transparent you have to press and hold a button on the nunchuk controller. While doing that you can sort of line up your shot but you have to let go of the button in order to shoot. When you let go, the transparency goes off and the character comes into full view blocking your shot again.
- Along with the character blocking your shot, the option to apply English on your ball is semi-transparent and stays on the lower right hand corner of the screen and also takes up about 25% of the screen. I can't turn this off either.
This game is poorly designed and not very user friendly. After waiting quite a while for Wii to come out with a good pool game, they've missed the mark here.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Do NOT buy this game - stick with Wii Play's Billiards, January 15, 2008
Fun:1.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: Pool Party (Video Game)
This is truly a horrible game. I own Wii Play and have played their Billiards game quite a bit. After a while of playing that, I got tired of the single game type (kind of like Rotation with only 9 balls) and decided I'd buy the only other Pool game on the Wii (which, in itself, is quite baffling since the controls make it a natural for pool games!): Pool Party.
After struggling in vain along with my brother-in-law to play two games of pool with it, I packed it back up and returned it to the store, advising them to stop carrying it. It's games like this that could give the Wii a really bad reputation as an inferior console. I'm honestly bewildered that Nintendo licensed this product for release.
Pros & Cons:
Pros:
- Has a very good variety of game types. 8 Ball, 9 Ball, Rotation, Straight Pool, Billiards and some ones I hadn't heard of like Killer and Blackjack, etc. No Cutthroat, though.
Cons: (get comfortable)
- Manual is riddled with typos, including one where they're telling you how to pull back the cue and *leave out the button you have to press while pulling back*. It says something like: "press button while pulling back". They clearly didn't have a proofreader or even a spellcheck. The credits at the back of the manual list just 3 programmers as developing the game and you can tell.
- Awful graphics. The balls are all the wrong colors and somehow you can't even make out the numbers on the balls just by looking at them - even on your 1080p 37" widescreen HDTV. Wii Play's Billiards looks several times better.
- Horrible controls. Incredibly overcomplicated and unintuitive. In Wii Play Billiards, you can put draw and spin on the ball simply by aiming your remote at any point on the ball and you can see where you're aiming by a red dot on the ball. In Pool Play, you have to press and hold a button and then move the aim position by pressing arrows on the screen. WTF? Did the developers even *play* Wii Play Billiards? And you can't even control the power of your shot by how quickly you push forward on the remote - you have to set some power meter by holding A & B while pulling back the remote (which, by the way, is also how you move the camera so you often line up your shot then completely screw it up while pulling back to shoot). It's as if it was developed to be played on a PC with a mouse then just ported to a Wii with a minimum of effort and shipped.
- Muddy, clumsy physics simulation. Once you actually do hit the ball, there's about a full second lag before anything happens on screen. The balls don't seem to bounce off each other with any true elasticity or momentum, spin seems oddly rigid.
- Awful interface. Unintuitive pre-game menus, simple text overlays for messages, no in-game tips or instructions and a PC-like menu you have to open up to switch between things like seeing what number a ball is (in Wii Play Billiards, just put your cursor over it and it tells you), saving and loading, etc.
- General lack of polish. Playing Pool Party and going back to Wii Play Billiards really makes you appreciate the little things Nintendo did to make their Billiards game fun and intuitive. Pool Party makes stupid blunders like starting off your camera pointing the cue ball at a pocket rather than, say, the closest legal ball. Or how about taking up the whole bottom left corner of the screen with your completely useless and noncustomizable portrait (of which there are about 4 or 5 to choose from - all obvious direct renders from Poser) where what you'd really like to see is oh, say, the score?
Truly a horrible game. If anyone has already bought this game, I highly recommend you pick up Wii Play (if you can find it) and see how it should be done (though I warn you it will probably ruin Pool Party for you if you actually enjoy it already). The only thing Pool Party has over Wii Play is the number of game types (but that doesn't really count if the core gameplay mechanics make it unplayable).
If I could give this game negative stars, I would. :/
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Avoid like the plague, November 14, 2007
Fun:1.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: Pool Party (Video Game)
I have to say I was looking forward to this game for months. I became totally addicted to the pool game in the Wii games pack.
This is a poor quality Gamecube style game.
How can a company make a game for the Wii that uses NONE of the wii's human interface advantages?
Dont buy this game and expect to be able to stroke the cue with a realistic action. This game makes you choose your power level first and then trigger the shot... in other words this is nothing like playing pool. You could do the same with a conventional controller.
The wii game pack version might not have fancy graphics or any options but the cue action is superb.
Dont waste your money on this.
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