PlayStation 2

Pool Paradise

In today's world of picky gamers, a pool game without any extras is a waste of time. Fortunately for this crowd, PP delivers, once again. By earning cash and side bets, you can purchase additional tables and mini-games, which includes skeeball, darts, and Dropzone. With these extra features costing loads of cash, it will take weeks to unlock everything in this game, which is good, since you don't find many games like this. For the quality of this title, the bargain bin price tag is irresistible. If you own a GCN, pick this game up today, you won't regret it.

If you do, then for 20 quid or less, Pool Paradise is well worth it, and stands head and shoulders above almost everything else. Unless you own another pool or snooker title that you're reasonably happy with, or you answered 'no' to the question at the end of the previous section, there's very little excuse not to chalk this up and give it a whirlwind.

Pool Paradise is one of those rare, surreptitious little games that drives you to fritter the hours of your life away playing it, without ever providing you with so much as a clue as to what it's doing to you. Its puzzlingly addictive nature simply cannot be reasoned with, yet at the same time, it helps solidify the game as one of the best games of pool to come out on a console platform in many years. Even if you don't appreciate the game's offbeat sense of humor and strange presentational design, you simply cannot deny that it provides some of the most polished pool gameplay around, as well as an extremely deep inventory of pool games and bonus games, which also happen to be quite fun. Though there are other pool games available for the PlayStation 2, few, if any, are as enjoyable as Pool Paradise.

An oddity and some small disappointments are not enough to keep me from enjoying a really good game. I can't say I'd spend a whole night playing Pool Paradise, but I wouldn't spend that much time playing the real thing either. Pool Paradise is the kind of game that you'll want to kick back and relax with. It's the kind of game you could encourage women to play much more easily than Halo or Soul Calibur. You won't find a better virtual pool table, nor will you find one at a lower price. (Pool Paradise has an MSRP of $20.)

Our gripes with the game still standing, Pool Paradise comes recommended to all billiards fanatics. Oppositely, gamers unsure about their love for pool may want to rent before they slap down the cash for the purchase.

It is a good pool simulation, for extra realism you could add stale beer stains and fag burns to your carpet. It will take you a long time to unlock everything, but it’s not without its flaws. The length of time it takes the AI to make a shot grates, and the lack of solo practice annoys. It’s this miss-cue that sadly stops the game from reaching the championship finals. A worthy purchase nonetheless.