Pool Champion - PC, 16/1/96

1996 is set to be the year when all those whines about tired genres are forced back into our tiny pink voice-boxes, making them shake open.

This week we've had an interactive guitar romp, a bass fishing simulator, a pet-balancing RPG and a game about making a sugar daddy out of diodes. Notice: two lies don't make a joke.

So here is a pool adventure.

Inevitably, the adventure element in Pool Champion is rather muted. One must fear a last minute tack-on to enhance a sim shorn of Virtua Pool's 3D gloss.

Ah, but fear be as fear do - the game runs on a real-time calender (Windows, see), allowing you to plot out bets, tournaments and novelty cue-buying parties. It's quite interesting.

Oh, the Windows-crippled graphics are bland, and the curious disembodied hand control cannot conceal a tired Archer Maclean-style game engine. Oh!

Pool Champion - PC CD-ROM - by Mindscape

Req: 8MbR DX Win
Graphix: 66%
Sonix: 63%
Gameplay: 72%
Lifespan: 76%
Originality: 81%
Uppers: Adventure bit is quite fun
Downers: Dull graphics and control
Overall: 69% - Paul Campion