Actua Pool


Actua Pool is a sports simulation video game developed by British company Gremlin Interactive as part of their highly successful Actua Sports series of sport simulators of the mid-to-late 1990s. Actua Pool, a pool was originally released on the Microsoft Windows platform and the Sony PlayStation home console in 1999; these versions were also published under the name Pool Shark. The game was very well received, praised for its realistic physics engine and challenging AI opponents, although the game spawned a sequel which was not as successful. In 2007, Actua Pool was ported to the Nintendo DS handheld game console.
The game was published in North America by THQ as Ultimate 8 Ball.

Description

Actua Pool is a pool simulation game with dozens of game modes, including eight-ball, nine-ball, three-ball, ten-ball, killer rules, cutthroat rules, bank rules, speed pool, one-pocket, various foreign styles and traditional snooker rules. There are dozens of venues, unique individual opponents and even different-shaped and unique tables are also available to unlock.
In one player mode, called "Hustle Mode", the character must hustle your way through smoke filled bars, casinos, pool halls and nightclubs and aim to black ball up to 18 challengers of ever-increasing skill across a range of challenging tables. There is an interactive tutorial if the player wishes, and the player can learn hundreds of trick shots from the tutorial. Each individual NPC opponent has its own unique appearance, voice, mannerisms, playing style and difficulty, and winning tournaments unlocks new NPCs to play against and venues to play in. The last opponent is the Devil himself, who you will play in Hell on his very own pool table and gamble for your very soul.
There are also the traditional two-player modes, as well as three-player, four-player, and so on. Any number of players can join in, and tournaments for up to 16 players are also available in which the NPC's can also be included. Player characters are completely customizable, and stats tally up an individual player's ability.

Venues and opponents

At its initial time of release Actua Pool was enjoying impressive sales and was also critically well received, and had above-average ratings in almost all reviews. The graphics of the game were generally considered impressive at the time of release, and the game physics engine was praised as very realistic, and the AI fairly advanced for a pool game.
Next Generation reviewed the PC version of the game, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "If there's a sport that 'American guys' can really sink their teeth into, then it has to be pool. THQ's latest iteration of the game seems almost ridiculously competitive."

Legacy

In 2003 Actua Pool was re-released for the PC and PlayStation by Zoo Digital Publishing under their "Zoo Classics" label.
In 2007, U Wish Games released another updated version for PCs.
In 2007, the game was re-developed with enhanced graphics by Frontline Studios, published by Zoo Digital Publishing and ported to the handheld game console Nintendo DS. This version is known as Underground Pool in North America. This version enjoyed good sales, but was not as well received critically as the original game. It has been noted that the uniqueness of individual opponents has been lost in this version, as are all the different variations of rules available, as there are only two different games in the Nintendo DS version whereas the original had dozens.

Sequel

A sequel was released in 2004 for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 2 entitled Pool Shark 2. It was developed by Blade Interactive and published by Zoo Digital Publishing. The "Actua" title was not included as the Actua Sports series had become defunct some years previously, as had the original developers Gremlin Interactive, and therefore Pool Shark 2 is not actually part of the same series of the original. Although Pool Shark 2 had better graphics then Actua Pool due the advances in game technology, the sequel was not as critically well received as the original, and did not enjoy good sales like its predecessor.