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jp's World Cup of Pool (DS)

[July 30, 2021 07:05:40 PM]

So, I played this for a few hours and I'm TERRIBLE! But, I was getting better.

A few things of note:

(a) The game's interface is really interesting in that it's unusual! Rather than emphasize the touch aspects of the DS in a dynamic way - e.g. "Slide the stylus hit the balls" it's a really "technical" interface - you adjust angles, position on the cue ball and there's a force meter you raise/lower. Then you hit "play" and off the ball goes. I really liked this interface and I feel it plays to the strengths of the stylus without falling prey to the worst parts of the weaknesses of the stylus-as-input. I'm still not very good at the game - though I was getting better the longer I played.

(b) The balls/table are all on the upper screen and for some reason I had a hard time distinguishing the balls from each other (playing pool, you need to tell colors from stripes AND not sink the 8- or 9-ball depending on the mode). I straight up lost two games for sinking the 8-ball (confusing it with another colored ball like the green solid on (7?). I also hit the 8-ball first (when going for colors) a few times giving my opponent a free hit. That was really annoying. It might have been worse due to light conditions - but still...I was also playing on a DS-XL, so larger screen than usual!

(c) I thought about representation in videogames mostly because all of a sudden I realized I was playing against a Filipino player (a real-life champion, I know nothing of pro pool!) and I realized, wow...this must be SUPER rare! I remember being excited to see a Chilean pro tennis player in a videogame some time ago (Fernando Gonzalez) and it just got me thinking about how representation (national/ethnic/racial in this case) can vary from sport to sport and that the more "obscure" (to me at least) sports might be better at this? I have no idea how the world cup of pool works - is it always a player per country (representing that country) and countries qualify (like FIFA world cup soccer)? Or do the competitors qualify as individuals? Anyways...