Pool Fever

Genre: Sports (Pool)

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local)

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Review:

Pool Fever, released in 2024 on Nintendo Switch, is a videogame version of, well, Pool. Specifically, this game includes 8-Ball and… that’s it. There’s no 9-Ball, 10-Ball, or any other variant. I suppose this is only a $5 game, but even so, it wouldn’t have been difficult to add these variants, and even the DLC for this game only offer different skins for tables and cues.

The presentation here is good, making use of 3D visuals that work well enough for the gameplay, even if they’re nothing special. These are joined by decent but forgettable lounge music, along with some overly-loud crowd sounds – apparently this pool hall is a huge gathering place for people having conversations, though of course we can’t see any of them. Did the Overlook Hotel have a pool hall?

When it comes to the gameplay, there’s a lot that’s missing here – there’s no control for making smaller, more subtle adjustments to your shots. You cannot choose where to aim on your cue ball, meaning you won’t be putting any spin on your shots. There’s no motion controls or touchscreen – you can only control the power of your shots by holding down and releasing a button. You only have two camera views – the standard behind the ball view (which you can make minor adjustments to the height) and with a button press you can temporarily shift into a top-down view. There isn’t much in the way of options or settings. And the only multiplayer is local 2-player multiplayer.

Despite all of those issues, this is otherwise an enjoyable game of 8-Ball. However, now we need to talk about the elephant in the room: Pure Pool. While it’s $10 more expensive, Pure Pool is visually gorgeous, has far more options, and includes not only 8-Ball and 9-Ball, but also Snooker. And given how I just gave a laundry list of shortcomings that Pool Fever has, it’s difficult to recommend when you could spend a bit more and get a game that’s far, far better.

I suppose if you only have $5 to spend and you’re looking to get 8-Ball and only 8-Ball, Pool Fever is an acceptable low-cost way to do that. But I would strongly recommend that players spend just a bit more to get Pure Pool, which includes far more content and is all-around better.

tl;dr – Pool Fever is a stripped-down bare-bones version of 8-Ball, and while its core gameplay is still fun, it’s hard to recommend when you could spend a bit more to get Pure Pool, which includes multiple different game variants and is just all-around a far better game. Unless you need to get your Pool fix in and you can only scrape together $5, skip this game.

Grade: C+

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