Yahoo Pool Review

Game_Name: Yahoo Pool
Platform: PC
Publisher: Yahoo!
Genre: Sports
GamePlay Rating: 7
Graphics Rating: 5
Replayability Rating: 6

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Yahoo Pool is one of the games where, as you play it, you think to yourself, “This is ridiculous. I clearly don’t like this game.” However, you still play it. You play it forever and ever and ever until you pass out from malnutrition.

Gameplay Modes

There are three modes of play: Eight ball, nine ball, and training. Trust me when I say that you won’t need training. There isn’t anything to the game. You use a total of two buttons: the left mouse button and the right mouse button. Hold the left mouse button to drag your pool stick around and aim your shot (and occasionally move the ball after scratches) and then hold the right mouse button to drag the stick back and power up. When you aim your shot, you’ll get two separate guidelines coming off of the ball that you‘re aiming at. One shows you which direction the ball will go when hit, and the other shows you which way the cue ball will go. This makes the game ridiculously easy. Not only does it setup your shots for you, it also makes it impossible to scratch. However, if you’re too far away (more than half the table away), the guidelines won’t appear. This doesn’t change the difficulty much though, as if you remain in close quarters with all of your shots you can clear the table in no time.

Get a Feel For It

The mechanics of the game feel right. The balls seem a little heavy, but that’s just a passing comment. There’s a simple curving mechanism in place that’s extremely easy to use and adds a small, but nice amount of depth to the game. No ball hopping, or anything like that though.

Visuals and Audio

While the graphics aren’t bad necessarily, they’re very plain and leave a lot to be desired. I’m sure Yahoo! wants to keep it toned down so that all systems can run their games, but that leaves the visuals being very bland. All you ever hear in the game is a little “ding” noise when it’s your turn and the clacking of pool balls. While that’s all fine and dandy for simulating the pool hall feel, a little bit of music wouldn’t have killed them.

Wrap-Up

That said, perhaps it is this simple, uncomplicated aspect that gives the game its charm. The ability to just join a table and be done with a game in under a minute makes it a good game to marathon. Given the lack of difficulty, it kind of forces you to set your standards higher. It might be easy to win a game, but can you win a game in just one turn? And of course, playing with someone you know is definitely a plus. Using this game as a simple chat supplement is great way to kill time. If you’re bored, training mode allows you to move all of the balls around, and you can try to set up some cool trick shots. With all this said and done, I’m still not sure how I feel about Yahoo Pool, but I find myself going back all the time. [[[Free Online Video Games]]]

Gameplay Modes

There are three modes of play: Eight ball, nine ball, and training. Trust me when I say that you won’t need training. There isn’t anything to the game. You use a total of two buttons: the left mouse button and the right mouse button. Hold the left mouse button to drag your pool stick around and aim your shot (and occasionally move the ball after scratches) and then hold the right mouse button to drag the stick back and power up. When you aim your shot, you’ll get two separate guidelines coming off of the ball that you‘re aiming at. One shows you which direction the ball will go when hit, and the other shows you which way the cue ball will go. This makes the game ridiculously easy. Not only does it setup your shots for you, it also makes it impossible to scratch. However, if you’re too far away (more than half the table away), the guidelines won’t appear. This doesn’t change the difficulty much though, as if you remain in close quarters with all of your shots you can clear the table in no time.

Get a Feel For It

The mechanics of the game feel right. The balls seem a little heavy, but that’s just a passing comment. There’s a simple curving mechanism in place that’s extremely easy to use and adds a small, but nice amount of depth to the game. No ball hopping, or anything like that though.

Visuals and Audio

While the graphics aren’t bad necessarily, they’re very plain and leave a lot to be desired. I’m sure Yahoo! wants to keep it toned down so that all systems can run their games, but that leaves the visuals being very bland. All you ever hear in the game is a little “ding” noise when it’s your turn and the clacking of pool balls. While that’s all fine and dandy for simulating the pool hall feel, a little bit of music wouldn’t have killed them.

Wrap-Up

That said, perhaps it is this simple, uncomplicated aspect that gives the game its charm. The ability to just join a table and be done with a game in under a minute makes it a good game to marathon. Given the lack of difficulty, it kind of forces you to set your standards higher. It might be easy to win a game, but can you win a game in just one turn? And of course, playing with someone you know is definitely a plus. Using this game as a simple chat supplement is great way to kill time. If you’re bored, training mode allows you to move all of the balls around, and you can try to set up some cool trick shots.

With all this said and done, I’m still not sure how I feel about Yahoo Pool, but I find myself going back all the time.