Arcade Pool is an excellent arcade-style pool game for up to 8 players. While this underdog cannot compare with Virtual Pool in the realism department, in terms of play value and sheer fun factor alone this game is hard to beat. You get to choose between 8 Ball (UK or US rules), 9 Ball, 8/15 Ball, Survivor (known as Killer in the UK), 9 Ball Challenge, and the great game of Speed Pool. You can play best-of-three mode, participate in huge tournaments that will take you dozens of matches to finish, or even play the various scored challenges in which you can build up and save high scores. The computer players, from the wholly incompetent to the masters, are all fun to play against and even have their own personalities. Although billed as an "arcade" pool game, Arcade Pool boasts a decent physics engine beneath pleasant VGA graphics. Unlike many other pool games, the balls actually do appear to roll as you hit them, and behave as you would expect most of the time (although on the rare occasions that the balls behave strangely, they are downright weird). The controls are simple, but surprisingly accurate and very easy to use. All in all, Arcade Pool is one of the most underrated pool games ever made, and one that you will happily come back to from time to time. Two thumbs up! Note: We have been asked by Team 17 to remove downloads of all their games. Please contact the company directly if you are interested in purchasing any out of print titles. Reviewed by: Underdogs |