Pool Hall Pro - Nintendo Wii

This is one great game for snooker players. The next best thing to having a snooker table in your own home, which few of us would have room or money for. I can't speak for the other games,such as 8-Ball, on this Wii game disc, but you couldn't ask for much more in the snooker section. The game is not perfect but we have been able to overcome 95% of the minor flaws it does have. I suspect that the source of most of the criticisms that I see in the reviews for this game is that people are trying to use 8-Ball style shooting (slaming the ball into a pocket or shooting hard). Snooker is a finesse game and Pool Hall Pro reflects it. If the ball zings up and down the length of the table several times then you are hitting it too hard. This game is not designed for hard shooting. The majority of snooker shots are soft and easy because of the rounded pockets which will throw an hard or a "slop" shot out if it touchs the side. Snooker is a game of leave to try and snooker your opponet and you can't leave the cue ball by slaming it up and down the table. If you attempt to play 8-Ball style hard shooting, you will be sorely disappointed with the snooker portion of this game. I have not played 8-Ball on this disc, I didn't buy it for the 8-Ball game.I have been told that the 8-Ball portion of the disc does not play well or true to fashion. Perhaps the same engine that was designed for the snooker portion was used for the 8-ball, I don't know. I bought it for the snooker and have been so impressed that I bought an extra copy of the disc as insurance for the future damage of the disc that I first bought. The bad side of Pool Hall Pro, is that the instructions are really lacking in information. You are almost on your own when trying to figure out how to play the game. It took a while to realize that first you make the angle cuts on the target ball by using the horizonal Control Pad/Directional + on the Wii Remote, and then you ignore the moving "ghost" cueball directional motion (they will move wildly sometimes when you go to the cue ball), and place the blue dot on the cue ball where you want to strike it. The initial cuts you made will be saved when you place the blue dot on the cue ball. You have to keep your remote level and follow through with the motion of your shot. If you pull up with the remote, during or at the end of the stroke the ball will move only a few inches and stop. Once you are holding the B-button in YOU CAN NOT STEP FORWARD TOWARD THE SCREEN or the stroke will begin and the ball move only slightly. You have to be directly in front of the screen for the play to work as designed. The "ghost" line of moving cue balls will tell you if you can shoot past a close ball or not and accurately whether you are shooting from the foot of the table to the head or just a few inches. You can make extremely fine cuts/adjustments to the target ball with the horizonal control pad. In fact you can cut the target ball so closely that you can move it only a few inches on a shot from the foot to the head of the table. You can lower or raise your cue stick using the A-button (a function we have found very little need for). If your cue ball is up against the rail you can shoot in a normal level fashion (don't try to angle your remote as if you are using a cue stick). It is not necessary to use the A-button to elevate your cue stick for these tough shots from the rail. The game is so well engineered that you can put "English" on the cue ball, especially reverse English. Once again this is an adjustment you have to learn by experience. If you put too hard of reverse English on the ball it will go bezerk. An occasional flaw is the giving of points to an opponent when he fouls. This doesn't happen very often but happens. Probably the worst con of the game is that you can't switch to an overview of the table to see the angle you need to make a shot to a side pocket or a target ball. There are so many positives for this game that they far out weigh the negatives. If you grew up in the American Southwest, you are use to playing Cowboy Snooker rules, you can't play by the many local variations of that game. You will have to adjust to the English rules. In Western Oklahoma, West Texas and Western New Mexico, in the ranch country, there has been a tradition of snooker since the English cattlemen brought their snooker tables with them from England and taught the cowhands how to play. The English Snooker game was quickly adapted and adopted by the cowboys of the SW ranch country and the Cowboy Snooker version was born. In the 50's before the exodus from the small country towns, most small Southwestern towns had a Snooker hall with its neon Snooker sign. Regular pool tables were rare. Having grown up with Cowboy Snooker and then moving out of the Southwest, I have to go to Vancouver, British Columbia, or Seattle (there are now only two tables there), if I want to play the game. Pool Hall Pro brings it all back for me. There is not too many things that the average or good player can do on a regular snooker table that they can't do with the Pool Hall Pro game. It's not a perfect game, but if you love snooker and can't find a table, it is the next best thing. The more you play Pool Hall Pro Snooker, you more you lean to adjust to the flaws. Pool Hall Pro is a GREAT snooker game designed for snooker players. If you attempt to play a hard shooting billards style on it's snooker table you will be very disapointed. Use snooker finesse and you will be astounded as how great and close this snooker game is to the real thing.

Iv'e always loved to play pool, had my own table for years, recently divorced, my roomate has 'retail' hours, that stopped me from buying another pool table. Playing the game is always a stress relief, if I go somewhere to play, I risk drinking and driving, so I went out and bought myself a WII game just for this game. The first game I bought was from one of the local Game Stop stores, it was hard enough to get used to 'no table', but the game was used and it didn't work right. The store had me go to another local Game Stop store to exchange it for another, they gave me another one that didn't work right. My roomate is a hard core Amazon user, she's the reason I went through you, I'm very happy with my 'brand new' out of the package pool game that works right. I've just started to buy product from Amazon, so far, so good, I would defenitly recommend your company to my friends and family. I'm now looking for some music, have no stereo, my daughter introduced me to an I-pod, that'll be my next purchase, thanks you guys, I'll be doing more business with you in the future.

This game has several modes such as Exhibition, Arcade, World Tournament, ect. But the Multi-player mode which would allow up to four friends to play pool together has a glitch. The pool cue will not stike any balls! I sent my first game back hoping to get a new game which would have a working Multi-player mode, but the replacement had the very same problem. (I have to tell you that I asked for a replacement from Amazon in the afternoon and they had my replacement to me the following afternoon! Amazing customer service from AMAZON). Every other mode worked just fine on both games. I tried to contact the games manufacturer: Playlogic, but was unsuccessful unless I was willing to call the Netherlands! The game is fun if you want to play by yourself against phantom opponents in the those other modes, however, each games setup seems to take too long for my standards. I also noticed a couple of other very small bugs in the game but nothing that couldn't be tolerated if the game worked properly on the whole. I would like to hear some reviews from people who have owned the game long enough to have played all of the modes in order to hear if they have also found problems with the Multi-player mode or any other problems with the game. My suggestion: if problems are found, return the game for a refund not a replacement. And don't count on tech support since you will not get support from the manufacturer.

Too many bugs. Most annoying is the shot near the edge when the ball sticks to the bumper and rolls with almost no friction. And sometimes the ball rolls clear off the table but game still thinks its in play and is impossible to hit. I wish they had spent more effort in getting the physics right rather than adding all those gimmicks around the game. I could really do without those mean looking dudes clapping.

I am actually quite disappointed with Pool Hall Pro. The set-up is not really as good Pool Party nor as fun to play. I was surprised most reviews put Pool Party to be low but in term of enjoyment, ease of play, graphics etc, definitely Pool Party is much better. I have been playing Pool Party for a while and wanted to get Pool Hall Pro for a better play but turned out, I would stick with Pool Party.

US bar rules mode and US bar tournament rules are missing and should be added for future versions, but overall choice of billiards games is good. Shooting accuracy needs to be improved as the cue stick releases frequently and just taps the cue ball. This is really irritating when you intend to be shooting across the table.

My father and I used to play pool when I was a little girl, and then I played for with my husband, family, and grandchildren. The pool table has long been gone, I'm now widowed, and my grandchildren have grown up and are in the military. I now spend a lot of time at the home of my elderly parents, and my 87 year old father and I are again playing pool, this time on the Wii. It's lots of fun!