Review Detail

As originally seen on Evil Avatar (http://www.evilavatar.com)
http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=98841

As a once avid pool player I've ran my fair share of tables and played around with pool games on Yahoo! but have never quite found that one definitive pool simulator. Inferno Pool uniquely blends 8 and 9 ball with their own "Inferno" mode that allows you to rub your pool prowess in the face of your friends over XBOX live or 4-player split screen co-op. All the tools are present to keep the casual player engaged and to give the hardened veteran a few good hours of enjoyment as you find the perfect English for your cue ball to land a 10,000 + point combo and sky rocket to the top of the leader boards.

The game menus are designed to get you into a match quickly giving you the option to pick between Single Player, Multiplayer or Help & Options. The Help screen is a text based guide on what each mode does and once you jump in you'll see that Inferno Pool takes a page out of other pool game books. By pointing the cue stick at the cue ball a white line appears and shows where the cue ball will land. When you move the cue stick to an angle where the cue ball will bump into a regular ball then a line associated with the color of the ball will go off in the direction that that ball should go. You're given a 360 degree view of the table and you can look top down by pressing the right bumper or at eye level by using the left joystick. By holding down the left trigger your cursor slows down so you can be extremely precise with your shots which helps to set up awesome jumps, kicks and banks. Ball English can be set by using the d-pad and an on-screen indicator appears showing you where your cue will land on the cue ball.

Inferno pool offers 3 game types: 8 ball, 9 ball and Inferno mode. 8 ball offers your traditional pool experience where the first player to sink a spot or stripe continues to sink the first color as they play around the table and at the end sink the 8 ball to win the game. 9 ball plays similar to 8 ball however you have to sink balls 1 to 9 in chronological order so sinking the 8 ball early doesn't penalize you like it does in 8 ball.

Inferno mode allows you to play against up to 3 other players on a split-screen and your objective is to clear your balls from the table before your opponent clears theirs. Sounds simple, right? Well Dark Energy decided to take it a step further and force players to play strategically against each other. This mode is not for someone who likes to take their time, its fast paced action demands that you constantly scan your opponents screen and find an opportunity to unleash your fury on their table. Every time you sink a ball it gets deposited in a bazooka in the lower left hand corner of your screen. The bazooka can store up to 5 balls at a time and is used to send those balls you sunk to your opponents table. You can set the bazooka to launch just one ball or save them up to do them all at once. If you are playing against more than 1 opponent than each player will receive a designated color and the face buttons coordinate with that players color so you can send a ball to each of you're team mates by pressing their associated button on your controller. Inferno Mode doesn't let up because while you're going around sinking balls you are also scoring points that help fill up your Inferno Meter. Performing trick shots (banks, kicks, jumps) nets more points and fills this meter faster. When full, your table and balls turn red and the announcer screams "Inferno!", and you become a table master. For every ball you sink while in Inferno Mode another ball is taken off helping you clear your table quicker. When the allotted amount of time is up the game ends and you're given ranks, 1st - 4th, based on your performance and shown the stats for the game.

Beyond Inferno mode, Inferno Pool doesn't have much to offer for the single player. With a lack of a tournament style play you are forced to go online or play against the computers, and if you miss one shot on anything above Novice the computer is more than likely to run the table on you. Making up for this is the fact that you can have up to 4 players playing at a time locally or online. The graphics and presentation go a long way to keep you entertained and the ball physics mimic a real pool game almost flawlessly. Taking into consideration the low price tag, Inferno Pool offers a great experience for anyone who enjoys pool or are thinking of taking it up as a hobby.