Hustle Kings
Developer: VooFoo Studios
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
Genre: Realistic Sports
Release Date: 1/28/2010
I love playing pool, but when it comes to actually getting to play, I have two choices: either go to a crummy bar and pay $1 a table on kleptomaniacal tables with warped house cues, or get to a place called US 1 Bar & Billiards, which has a skilful twenty tables of high quality, drinks for my friend, and a nice atmosphere. The latter is the preferable choice, only B&B is a half hour away in Due west Haven, and those trips go plush in a hurry. Neither option is optimal, but what'south worse is that any local options for me have died. The local identify in Seymour that I and all my friends learned the game was closed by it's owner considering he got sick of dealing with the local hooligans. Derby Billiards'southward building was condemned so the urban center could put up condominiums, and its successor, Fat's Pool Hall, didn't even concluding a year. In short, I'm running out of places to play.
I picked up Hustle Kings because I have been looking for a adept, solid puddle game that would hopefully, possibly, FINALLY make me forget the standby I've had since I was a teenager: Mindscape's Championship Pool for the Super Nintendo, which had outstanding pool physics, lots of game modes, and a good way to acquire the rules of pool thank you to a license from the Billiard Congress of America (BCA). I still occasionally play the game, despite information technology beingness over sixteen years old, simply it doesn't have the niceties that modernistic games take, similar solid graphics, good photographic camera angles or online play. The game needs an development, and I picked Hustle Kings upwards hoping it was what I'd been looking for for over 16 years.
Ultimately, Hustle Kings'south pool engine – the actual function of playing pool – is smashing. It's everything else that falls flat on it's face.
On the surface, Hustle Kings looks to be loaded to the brim with modes. It has exhibition matches, tournaments and a career mode for y'all to partake in, all of them containing enough of dissimilar types of puddle. 8-Ball, 9-Ball, fourteen.1 Continuous, Blackness Brawl (essentially viii ball with snooker assurance), more types of both regular and snooker puddle, as well every bit diverse trick modes too. There'due south also "hustle" pool, which allows you lot to wager with someone with X amount of Hustle King Credits (HKC) on the line for whoever wins. I really learned a few ways to play puddle here; I've never played "Killer" pool before this, and at the very to the lowest degree, information technology'southward going to give my friend Mike and I something to think about next fourth dimension we're at Bar & Billiards. The just problem for people who are anal-retentive about the rules of puddle is that for some games, the rules are a fleck easier than they would be in tournament play. For case, in 14.ane Continuous, you're supposed to call every shot; for example, half dozen-brawl, side pocket. In fourteen.1 here, y'all tin but play whatever ball into any pocket, which usually leads to games of Jesus Pool: smash and pray. Also, the rules for 8-brawl here are definitely slop count; only the eight brawl has to exist called. I'd have liked to be able to vary the rules of individual games.
At showtime glance, this is fine. There are a lot of slap-up means to play pool here. But one thing strikes me as missing: a practice fashion. You Accept to play confronting someone in some form. This is problematic for a few reasons. For one, in order to get used to playing with no aim line, do is required every bit information technology's different than playing on a real pool table; it's also different than playing with the aiming line, which can be gamed a number of means. It's empty-headed to have to wait for computer players to play when I just want to knock around on a table for awhile. How is information technology that Championship Pool has a practise mode and 2010's Hustle Kings doesn't? This is featherbrained, and every bit I'one thousand going to go into after, having to play the estimator to get practice is a major problem.
Career fashion is where the bulk of offline play is going to exist performed. It's a standard progression of games with opponents and settings matching the level of tournament you're playing. Different events have to be beaten earlier others become unlocked. Some events accept entry fees, where you accept to pay a set amount of HKC to be able to play. Those HKC are likewise used to unlock avatars, assurance, cues and other assorted goodies, and since the price for these items is so obscenely high, information technology seems a scrap silly to me to force this requirement in non-Hustle based modes. Speaking of Hustle Mode, getting into a game of Hustle is less about negotiating than it is about guesswork. Suggesting a toll to your opponent will either exist accustomed, or have a counter toll given. There is no haggle after this; you either take the offer or leave information technology, having to become through the whole process once more to go a unlike entry fee. This is one of many interface issues that creep upwardly through the game.
In that location'due south one major problem with career mode, and it'south a problem that permeates all offline play: the bogus intelligence in this game is fucked. There are 3 different difficulty modes, but the only difference between them is how often the computer player screws up, and the degree of the screw-ups. When I say "screws upwards", I hateful catastrophically, to the point where a real pool thespian would be checking his cue for warping. About 50% of the time, the computer player on Easy volition hit the cue ball with about 20% accuracy, giving us the sound a cue makes when it shanks the cue ball, and send the brawl whereever. The other fifty% of the time, the calculator morphs into Minnesota Fats, and performs amazing, unbelievable shots effortlessly. Iii ball banks off ii cushions where 2 balls go in are performed routinely by the "piece of cake" opponent, leaving a gimmie for the next shot, which ends up being missed entirely for a foul; this is VooFoo's idea of "intelligence". On harder settings, the corporeality of globe-bending spiral-ups is just reduced. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what we phone call "Mortal Kombat Syndrome", named after the xvi flake home ports of Mortal Kombat 3 and all information technology's advanced iterations. The first few fights on default difficulty, the game would play like a functional retard, but on the quaternary fight would do macroed combos to wipe the floor with you; if you lot did something to counter, the game immediately did a counter move with split-2nd timing, equally if information technology was responding to your button press. It'due south the ultimate example of lazy, ineffectual programming you tin discover, and Hustle Kings has the worst case of it I've seen, ironically, since Street Fighter Four.
Due to the frustrations involved, playing confronting the computer is nearly useless, making all offline play modes as useless every bit well. Information technology'due south as well bad, because the bodily gameplay involved is pretty good.
There are two types of aiming mechanisms; a timing based and counterpart based method. The timing based involves trying to line upward a line within a circle, whereas the analogue method involves pulling back and going forward with the counterpart stick. To compare these methods to golf games, the digital method is comparable to the tried-and-truthful method of control found in games such as Hot Shots Golf game and Pangya Golf, whereas the analogue method is what'south institute in Tiger Forest PGA Tour. Information technology's really a affair of preference as to which mode is preferable to players; I prefer analogue, almost others adopt digital, though it should be said that the analogue method is very touchy, and information technology's nearly impossible to even get 97% accuracy on your shots. Depending on settings, there is an aim line of varying length, though it can also be shut off. The line shows where the shot is going, how the cue is going to react to hit the ball, and if the shot is close plenty, an thought of where the contacted brawl will be going besides. The shot line is able to be gamed past maxing out ability (with the triggers), and and then pulling dorsum that power once the line is acquired, so anyone playing against man players, either plough the line off or put in a shot clock. One thing that screwed me up a little after existence so used to both Championship Puddle and real tables is that the felt in this game plays very fast. It's going to take a slight adjustment period for people used to other puddle games to see exactly how much power they need, particularly when playing defense. Each successful shot or play Рincluding something similar hitting a bumper outset Рgains HKC, with more being awarded for highly avant-garde shots; therefore, watch the estimator rack upwards crazy amounts of points, every bit the focus becomes less on winning games than it is hitting balls in in the trickiest fashion possible. Thankfully, in the tutorial, the game teaches players how to jump and mass̩ the ball. Hustle Kings incorporates chalk into the game by making you shake the controller to chalk upwards your cue; the longer you lot become without chalking, the worse your accuracy gets, like real pool. Strangely, they sell avant-garde forms of chalk that give benefits such as guaranteed 100% accuracy or longer sight lines, just not with in-game credits; you insultingly have to buy ameliorate chalk at $.99 a piece, with limited uses per. I can't believe this was actually canonical with a straight confront. It's not just that you have to pay real-globe coin in guild to take LIMITED uses for something that they could accept easily immune to exist purchased with HKC. The fact is that chalk costs $.99, and the minimum y'all can put into your PSN wallet is $5 at a fourth dimension; unless y'all have money lying effectually, each piece of chalk is really a $five purchase. Once more, this is for limited uses, and to be fair, I don't know how many uses since I decline to pay for an in-game power up with express employ solely on principle. Thankfully, the game is fully playable without this nonsense.
At that place are also multiple photographic camera angles, past which I mean three. That's exactly equally many camera angles as Championship Puddle had, and though the game is in 3D, this isn't enough. Ball cam – the photographic camera that would normally exist used to look exactly where your shot is going – is particularly limited. You can only see a limited view from the balls on the table; you lot can't wait ahead and run across, for case, where your shot is going to hit on the bumper, or if anything else is out of the way. It turns out the best view for that is the meridian-downwards view, which has simply been around since, oh, Side Pocket. This reeks of laziness on the part of the developers. Again.
Since single-player mode is so useless, online mode is the place to go anything out of this purchase. For what they're worth, the game'south online modes do the job. There's a quick mode that allows you lot to find an opponent, though the settings – a 60 second shot clock, a "brusque" sight line, and US 8-Ball – are not optimal. Thankfully, there are other rooms created by other people that support upwardly to 32 players per room, which kinda reminds me of Yahoo Puddle in a sense. The game varies based on what the room is, and some (read: most) rooms have a pay-in of HKC credits in order to join. Most games, once I got into them, were lag-free and easy to play, but a lot of times I went to play someone, the game never started because the other person wouldn't get-go the game. I don't know if this was a glitch or just crummy players, and so I can't concur it against the game, but it was annoying nonetheless. This is the best way to gain HKC and enjoy the game, though the rooms tin can get a little thing at off-peak hours. Information technology'south also an oversight to not allow trickshot competitions online; trickshots are only one role player modes.
Aesthetically, the game does OK. It looks good, with the balls and tables all looking outstanding. At that place are different stages that all have dissimilar environments, though during gameplay, these are almost never noticed unless you're shooting confronting a bright backdrop, which can get annoying. Audio effects are good in terms of the sounds a game of pool should brand, from the balls hit each other to the cue to shanking shots, but the music is horrific. They have unlike, inventive names like "Jazz", "Techno" and "Hip-Hop", merely they all audio like something that's played on a loop in Hell's WalMart. The option to play my own music would accept been extremely welcome.
The Scores
Modes: Decent
Graphics: Above Average
Sound: Mediocre
Gameplay: Good
Replayability: Decent
Rest: Worthless
Originality: Bad
Addictiveness: Below Average
Entreatment Factor: Above Average
Miscellaneous: Awful
FINAL SCORE: BELOW AVERAGE GAME
Short Attention Bridge Summary
Hustle Kings is a skillful purchase if you actually enjoy pool, have friends who also like to play pool, and can't get to an bodily table. However, the single player mode is such a travesty that I can't really justify purchasing it unless you're going to spend your entire fourth dimension with the game online. The game is lazy, has terrible AI, a somewhat blank-basic (but effective) online way, and offensive attempts to steal money from unsuspecting gamers looking for an border.
I'll enjoy playing information technology with my friend and fellow puddle addict Mike when we can't make the drive to Westward Haven, only if it weren't for that, I would never play Hustle Kings again. Anyone looking for a decent puddle game can save a few bucks and become the PS ane Archetype title Backstreet Billiards instead.
Every bit for me, it looks like information technology'southward back to Title Pool I become…
Tags: Sony Computer Entertainment America
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