Bankshot Billiards 2 - Review
Added February 2nd, 2006 by Colin
Games like Perfect Dark Zero and Call of Duty 2 are a great deal of fun, but every once in a while you just want to sit back and take a breather. For those times, the Xbox Live Arcade can be your best friend. But sometimes you want to take a break while chatting with a friend of yours- that’s when a game such as Bankshot Billiards comes into play. Bankshot Billiards is not just the only multiplayer pool game on the 360 right now; it’s the only pool game, period. But a lack of competition does not necessitate a good deal, as we see with Bankshot Billiards. Read on.
Let’s start off with saying that Bankshot Billiards has a huge amount of modes- it really does. These modes range from the regular 8-ball game to such game types as golf and trick shot, in which you try to make a shot, or set of shots, without hitting the balls with red X’s. It’s like a pool challenge mode, and is hard enough that it provides a good amount of replay value. The core game is just regular pool. You maneuver a floating cue, position it to hit the ball, and let 'er rip. However, you can also line up a great many trick shots through the clever use of options like the angle you hit the ball at, the english (where you hit the ball), and power by which you hit the ball. All in all you have a huge amount of control over your shots, and are able to produce some rather impressive 'how did he do that?!' moments with relative ease. For those in need of a little aiming help there are also a bunch of different aiming aids available that will show you the path the pool ball will take if you hit it as you have the shot set up.
Graphically, Bankshot Billiards gets the job done. Everything is high resolution, as one would expect from an Xbox 360 game, and you have quite a bit of customization options on how the playing field looks. You can select a multitude of tables, balls, table surfaces, and pool cues you can play with. None of them affect gameplay, but it's nice to be able to tweak things to your liking. Sound is utterly forgettable, hitting a ball feels like hitting a ball, and that's about it. Music is simply average, and thus will be replaced with a custom soundtrack within seconds of playing by most players. Menu's all look excellent and animate smoothly. Live Play is almost flawless, there is no lag, the menu’s all work well, and you can quickly get into a game. Unfortunately, however, there is a maximum of just two players for each game, which begs the question, why? Most games of pool involve four players, so why wouldn’t that be represented here? If Perfect Dark Zero can handle 32 players without lag, one would think a billiards game would be able to as well.
Summary:
In the end, Bankshot Billiards does exactly what it should- it provides a solid game of pool playable over Xbox Live with a great many gameplay options. The graphics get the job done, and the gameplay itself is well done. This would be a good purchase for anyone with a Live account if it wasn’t for one thing. Price. Bankshot Billiards is 1200 Microsoft Points. That translates into fifteen dollars, more than any other game on the Live Arcade. While Bankshot Billiards is good, it isn’t that good; in the end, when you look at the other offerings on the Live Arcade, one must wonder if there isn’t something better to get with those points.
Summary:
In the end, Bankshot Billiards does exactly what it should- it provides a solid game of pool playable over Xbox Live with a great many gameplay options. The graphics get the job done, and the gameplay itself is well done. This would be a good purchase for anyone with a Live account if it wasn’t for one thing. Price. Bankshot Billiards is 1200 Microsoft Points. That translates into fifteen dollars, more than any other game on the Live Arcade. While Bankshot Billiards is good, it isn’t that good; in the end, when you look at the other offerings on the Live Arcade, one must wonder if there isn’t something better to get with those points.
