Pot the red and screw back
On match days, the dual screen format has been used to good effect, with the top screen showing a top-down view of the table, which you can rotate around to get a good view of the layout, while the bottom screen shows a close up 3D view of the action, from the perspective of the snooker player. (You can also switch these two screens around if you wish to do so). There are a few camera angle problems where you can’t always seem to get the exact angle you’re looking for in order to line up a shot, but overall the two screens work well together and offer you the majority of angles that you’ll need in order to make a decent break.Each game can be controlled exclusively with the stylus, which you can drag across the screen to change the angles, although you can still use the d-pad to cycle through options if you wish. Before you take a shot you can apply spin to the ball by moving the black dot on the cue ball to the required position and you can also choose the power of your shot.
On screen there are two trails projecting from the cue ball: the white trail shows where you are aiming on the table, whereas the yellow trail shows the direction that the cue ball will go in following impact. To make things easier there’s also a small shadow that shows the approximate finishing position of the cue ball.
With all of these features available you’d think that you’d have everything you need in order to pull of a perfect 147 break, but these landing positions are only estimates and do depend on other factors, such as whether you hit any balls along the way or how much spin or power you’ve put on the shot. The shadow mark is a good guideline, but it’s not always 100% accurate and just when you think you’re about to pull off the shot of the tournament, you can end up being very disappointed and leaving your opponent with an open table.
The stylus hasn’t exactly been put to brilliant use in the game. It’s great for dragging across the screen to move the camera around the table quickly and line up a shot and the fact that you need to stroke the cue up and down before taking a shot makes the game more interactive than if you were playing it on your console or PC, but because you actually choose the power of your shot beforehand, it means that whether you decide to stroke the cue quickly or slowly it will actually have no impact whatsoever on the shot. If it did so it would have made the game harder, but it would still have been a better idea to use the stylus as if it were the actually cue. As it stands, it’s a bit of a pointless exercise and you might as well just hit a button for each shot and not use your stylus at all.
