International Snooker (iPhone) Review

Costas Stephanides’s Review

Putting the oo in snooker

After a quick broswe of the App Store, we didn't come across many Snooker games, sure there are plenty of Pool games but not much for Snooker. International Snooker is here to change that.

International Snooker comes from Big Head Games which has its roots firmly in mobile and the 8Bit Games team. Their mobile pedigree is well established but can they produce the goods for the iPhone. The short answer is yes.

The 3D graphics in the game are amazing. You do have the option of a fixed top down view or 3D. With the 3D view you can pan and tilt the view extremely smoothly and with no jaggedness. Java versions try hard to bring 3D to life on the small handsets but you would still find yourself reverting to the top down view. That is not a requirement here and you can freely and quickly adjust your viewing angle to line up the perfect shot.

The game will show the line of the cue ball up to its impact with cushion or ball. The game will also show the line the target ball will take. Admittedly, some java titles give you a few more options and will show the cue ball's final position but this could be addressed in an update.

The controls are simple and thankfully don't make use of any motion sensing. You can move your finger in the centre section of the screen to pan left/right and tilt up/down to adjust your view and cue direction. The left side of the screen has arrows which can be pressed to adjust the spin and the right side of the touch screen has a power bar where you can select specific power. As all the power, spin and angle options are ever present on the screen, there is no set routine or procedure that java counterparts enforce.

The game mechanics are great but what about the game itself? There is a tournament mode against a set of unlicensed but familiar sounding opponents (think International Superstar Soccer). There's also a quick match or a two player option. The game isn't actually that hard to play. The ball guides work really well and should be able to pot quite easily (the latest update now includes the option to turn the guide off). As with the real game, potting is only half the story, positional play is paramount. You cannot expect to get very far by smacking everything on full power - this is not Nine Ball pool. Learning how much power is the main obstacle but pulling in high breaks should come fairly quickly if you can keep control of the cue ball.

The opponent never thinks for too long when selected their shot. On the whole the difficulty level seems about right. The other guy will mess up and give you a chance to redeem yourself at some point during the frame.

All in all a very enjoyable and quick version of snooker. Next stop, some official licensing...