E3 06: World Pool Championship Hands-On

LOS ANGELES--By definition, pool can't be a sport, as anything that you become better at while drinking is impossible to classify as a sport--which also explains why bowling is not a sport. OK, we stole that joke from sports radio host Jim Rome. Big deal. Regardless, pool might not be a sport, but that doesn't mean it's not a lot of fun. So fun in fact that Sega is publishing a video game version of the sport--er, bar game--which we had a chance to check out on the show floor of this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo.

World Pool Championship will feature many of the different styles of pool you're familiar with, and perhaps a few you aren't. The build we played featured games like eight ball, nine ball, billiards, bar billiards, and snooker, as well as multiple tournaments to compete in, including the Mosconi Cup, World Cup, and US Open. Considering we have no idea who or what "snooker" is, we went straight to a game we were familiar with: nine ball. As we proceeded to the nine-ball submenu, we struck up a match with a friendly looking fellow sporting a mustache, which we found entirely appropriate for the game.

Since the mechanics of a pool game are the bottom line for success and failure, we were pleased to report that the controls in WPC were approachable, while still offering a lot of depth for the more-advanced set. Lining up your cue was a simple matter of moving the right analog stick left or right, and fine-tuning adjustments could be made by holding down the L2 button. To get a better view of the table, and your shot, you could also move the stick up and down, and the camera would respond accordingly. Handy indicators on the screen indicated which way the ball would break when struck at that angle.

As most billiards pros will tell you, there's much more than a good pool shot than simply putting chalk to cue and whacking away…and WPC will let you put a more advanced influence on the ball, such as an English (spin), by pressing the circle button and adjusting the contact point to the cue ball with the right analog stick; or by adjusting the elevation of the cue on the ball by holding down the square button. To set the shot in motion, you press the X button and then adjust shot power by moving the right analog stick up or down. Assuming you have the skill, and the time to practice, WPC could probably pull off some fancy ball-hopping trick shots, as well. We had neither, so our results weren't exactly the stuff of poolhall legend, but we still came away generally impressed with the overall physics of the game.

The game's presentation was looking a bit rough around the edges, particularly the transition between different camera angles and the player models. Still, with several months to go in development, there's ample time to add some spit and polish to the game's look and feel before release. With licensed pool pros and a number of real-life tournaments to take part in, World Pool Championship seems to be on the right path. Expect our full review of the game when it's released in September of this year.