Snooker Fever

Genre: Sports (Snooker)

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local)

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Review:

Snooker Fever, released in 2025 on Nintendo Switch, is a videogame version of, well, Snooker, a cue sport game that most players would compare to Pool, which is played in a similar manner, but Snooker has a larger table and is played by alternating between hitting red balls into pockets and then hitting various other colored balls into pockets. For all intents and purposes, the uninitiated can simply view this as a variant of pool (though no doubt snooker fans would be quick to point out how that description is technically inaccurate).

It seems odd that a game would focus solely on this less-popular cue sport when it wouldn’t have been difficult to add a traditional pool mode as well, but at the budget price of $5, I suppose I can’t complain too much, only wonder at an odd omission that will really limit this game’s appeal. And to its credit, Snooker Fever is a surprisingly decent, if bare bones, take on the sport.

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 snooker 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 snooker 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 on Snooker. 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 it does include Snooker along with 8-Ball and 9-Ball. And given how I just gave a laundry list of shortcomings that Snooker 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 Snooker and only Snooker, Snooker 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 Snooker and is all-around better.

tl;dr – Snooker Fever is a stripped-down bare-bones version of Snooker, 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 Snooker and is just all-around a far better game. Unless you need to get your Snooker fix in and you can only scrape together $5, skip this game.

Grade: C+

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2025 Game Awards:

Winner:

Runner-Up: Best Sports Game

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