Video Games Reloaded - Pool Party (Wii)

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Pool Party (Wii)
By: Adam Waddilove

Use the Wii remote as a snooker cue and whack it over your head

Grab your cue and go head-to-head in Pool Party for the Nintendo Wii. With 13 different types of pool, including 9-Ball, 8-Ball, Rotation, Black Jack and Snooker, there's a game of billiards to satisfy any pool shark where you will be hustlin' pros in dive bars, honky-tonks, mansions and even yachts. Pool Party includes competitors with intelligent A.I. and tables with real-world physics. Rack 'em up!

Pool Party Features:

13 game modes

10 rooms and tables

Choice of cue and various sets of balls

Supports single player and multiplayer games

Full 3D environments and characters with stylized graphics

Immersive sound environment that enhances the game play experience

Variety of dynamic characters

Let’s face it; there have been some pretty bad Wii games out there from companies trying to tack on motion controls to an average game to make it more accessible, unfortunately Pool Party even fails at that with confusing controls and graphics that makes my TV cry in shame.

Wii Play was the first game to show us how using the Wii Remote as a pool cue could be a good thing, but Pool Party somehow overcomplicates things with its controls, making it a frustrating and annoying experience. The game somehow manages to lack any tutorial mode (which should be illegal) and makes you use the instruction booklet to figure out how to play, I honestly cannot remember the last time the game made you read the instructions, how ridiculous.

I’m not even sure how to fully play the game, I can line shots up and flick the remote up but no matter how hard or slow you do it, it seems to do it at the same speed which is very slow. Pool Party also has incredible poor production values with its menus that look very under amateur, whoever designed it needs shot. I also don’t understand why it’s so slow to scroll down between different things in the menu, it is painfully slow.

Graphically, Pool Party is also weak and only runs in 480i, no 480p support is disappointing. There is multiplayer but no online features, which may have added an extra point to the overall score, but I don’t think much could save it from annihilation.

The Verdict

The simple truth is that you could find a better pool game on the internet or on Wii Play, this attempt is abysmal and should be avoided at all costs.