A Quick Look at 'International Snooker' from Big Head Games
posted January 12th, 2009 7:25 PM CST by Blake Patterson in $4.99, Puzzle, Reviews, Sports, iPhone games, iPod touch gamesUK-based Big Head Games, who brought Retro to the App Store, has just released cue sport title International Snooker [App Store] for the iPhone and iPod touch.
I confess to not personally being much of a pool or "cue sports" fan. And being a Yank, I've had rather little exposure to the game of snooker. But I've spent time with various desktop and mobile cue sports titles, and Big Head Games' touchscreen-based iPhone offering is, to me, a rather satisfying and sufficiently realistic mobile translation of a real world sport.
Feature List:
- Single and two player quick games
- Tournament mode with 8 rounds against the world's best, competing for a place on the podium and the coveted IS Gold Cup.
- Super smooth and intuitive camera and cue control.
- Accurate power control, not 'swipe and hope'.
- Realistic ball physics including top, back and side spin.
- Play your own music or listen to the high quality sound fx and theme tune.
- Ball path guide lines including object and cue ball paths enhance gameplay over it's rivals.
- Difficulty settings that truly make a difference.
Stats page holds wins, losses, cup wins and highest breaks. - Made for iPhone (not a port)
- Full Rules and Instructions
See the developer's gameplay video for a closer look.
Cue game fans–especially those on the other side of the pond–may do well to have a look at $4.99 International Snooker. It's a solid iPhone sports title.
App Store Link: International Snooker, $4.99
January 12th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
I'm holding off to see how the no-guide lines update pans-out (as promised by the dev)
as it is I'm liking Killer Pool more and more (as well as VP) and it, at least has UK pool rules - and has a table very much like a snooker table (very unforgiving pockets)
but if this proves playable without guide lines - then I'll just have to get it, anyhow
January 12th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Glad Big Head Games, International Snooker is getting some exposure. They obviously put alot of hard work and $ into this game, and they have been active on the forums. Good job, BHG!
January 12th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Oh, we're never far away. Don't sleep either. Really…;)
Thanks for the props
And thanks to you too Blake (we didn't force him to play it, honest!)
-at
January 13th, 2009 at 2:35 am
Really want to pick this one up soon.
Am curious, why is this review tagged under $0.99?
January 13th, 2009 at 4:07 am
Looks really pretty, visually the best cue game I've seen, I'm going to buy this and I'll report back for the brits on the site after breakfast!
January 13th, 2009 at 4:59 am
Strange…….the graphics of virtually all other pool games are better, so i don't understand the praise here. It only allows you to rotate from the left to right and switch from the behind view to overhead without the ability to freely zoom the view.
Completely unplayable without guidelines, so don't hold your hopes up there.
There are a lot of other obvious flaws, which probably enhance the fun for the complete casual gamer but completely destroy it for the more serious pool friend.
January 13th, 2009 at 5:05 am
Better? You kidding? This is a dead drop looker for the BBC Masters on telly. And it's smooth as silk….Would you prefer it was set in a pub running at 10fps?
January 13th, 2009 at 5:27 am
I'd put money on Benzo being the same guy in the touch arcade forums promoting Virtual Pool, that's almost the same comment…hey Benzo leave these developers alone VP sells ok without you doing obvious self promotion, everyone deserves an even chance. 'Adam' was very patient with you I thought, he could have said allot more. You are obviously part of the VP team doing your best to hurt other cue games.
I have VP and the zoom just allows you to travel down the cue to the cue ball it adds nothing at all to the view. The gameplay in VP is take your chances, I really don't like the swipe to play the shot, luckliy with pool the table is so small and the pockets so big you get lucky enough to keep winning. If the VP boys put a snooker table into their engine it would really struggle. I've just bought this game and getting to grips with it, it's very nice so far, you can rotate the camera up/down and as you go up it zooms out to give you more of a view of the table, this is really nice as it's very easy to use, I've hardly used the top down view at this point.
January 13th, 2009 at 5:49 am
I've got a nice hot cup of Earl Grey, Captain Picard style, so this should be easy.
Everybody's right from their perspective. It doesn't always sound good, just as a fish might think everything looks weird out of water, but then I've never heard a fish complain. They do taste nice though..
But… for the benefit of the world at large, not everybody get's their way.
Our job is to make something that will please the majority: And no, that doesn't mean "casual gamers", but neither does it mean hardcore. Somewhere in the middle, if you will.
If you have any questions about philosophy or games, mail me or post (calmly if possible) in the forum, and I'll try to answer as candidly as I can
January 13th, 2009 at 6:52 am
Bought the game last night and must say I'm mostly very pleased with it - reminds me a lot of World Championship Snooker on the Xbox/PC. Graphics are great for what they need to be.
My only criticism is the ball physics aren't always totally realistic. The pace of the ball slows down very quickly and the way it stops quite suddenly isn't that realistic in my eyes. That makes it hard to judge shots as you try and build breaks.
Hopefully that can be amended in any future updates because if it can, it'll become the best game I've had on my Ipod touch so far.
Excellent work.
January 13th, 2009 at 7:08 am
Hi Dan,
Thank you
We've had this report from a few other players too; sometimes QA miss the small things (happens when you've been playing the same game over and over…QA peeps don't get enough props).
Fortunately it's just a single variable, and will be updated in 1.2 (1.1 is in the review queue now). There are other things in 1.2 which I won't talk about now, in case we have to hold off on them…rest assured though, we're out to make the game the best it can be.
January 13th, 2009 at 7:25 am
@backoffman…….most ridiculous comment ever. i mentioned ALL other 3D pool games are better in my opinion regarding the interface. virtual pool ist just my personal favorite and the most famous one.
"I have VP and the zoom just allows you to travel down the cue to the cue ball it adds nothing at all to the view"
this comment just shows me that you probably never held an real cue in your hands and if you did, you probably suck at playing.
a pool game in 3d has to be designed in a way that allows you to play without guidelines. for that you need maximum freedom in adjusting the viewpoint…..thats just impossible here.
i was fair enough in all comments to say that this game might be good for a casual gamer, because of the guidelines and because it requires no skill at all to play it.
for me it was a complete waste of money and probably its the disappointment speaking out of me because the first snooker game lacks the depth i was expecting from it.
if you like it, good for you. i paid money for it and that gives me the right to state my opinion, which is completely justified.
January 13th, 2009 at 7:28 am
Sorry Adam, was that last comment you put regarding the white ball physics? Couldn't tell as you'd put to Dan. Hoping it was!
January 13th, 2009 at 10:46 am
Hi, I think you need a lot of skill to play Snooker even if you do not struggle with aiming… there is a ton of strategy required, so even with aiming guides it is still tough to play… why all the hate?
cheers
George
January 13th, 2009 at 10:56 am
I like this game, very good snooker IMHO. What's wrong with aiming guides? I am not a snooker expert and I find them very helpful.
January 13th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Been playing more today and it's a great game. Any chance Adam that when you change the spin on the cue ball that the white ball guide is affected as you do it? A lot to ask I know. Great game though and I'm agreed with Siegfried, what is wrong with aiming guides. I play snooker and I'm going to keep them on for the big breaks!
January 13th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
"what is wrong with aiming guides"
I just like the feel of lining up a shot as it looks for real - sometimes you can 'see' the shot easily - other's it's hard to judge and you have to intuit from what you see - with guides it seems less about feel and more about lining up a definite result
Maybe the game would bee too difficult without guides as real world can never be fully transferred to a screen - so I appreciate the option of short guide lines as an attempt to make a game more difficult but still playable + no guides option on way√
January 13th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Really living this. Showed it to a friend at work and he now wants an iPhone just to play this. I've bought most of the other cue games and this is by far and away my fave. Glad the devs read this, it's amazing how the products can be altered to match user requests, you don't get that from Nintendo.
Anyway the only improvements I want to mention are…
1 Ball slowdown too rapid, already mentioned.
2 Power bar a bit too narrow to select at times or possibly unresponsive on occasion.
3 Table rotate in close up view takes too long. The speed is good for fine adjustments, but for looking around the table it needs a hold down and accelerate option. It takes lots of finger swipes to get a full table spin in. Perhaps it should spin thebsame way the old scrolls through a list of tracks, I.e flick to spin, drag to rotate to a position, if you see what I mean.
Anyway thanks a bunch, my no.1 iPhone game so far.
January 13th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Sorry for typos above. Posting on iPhone. For the word "old" in the final paragraph, please substitute "iPod"
.
January 13th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
To Mat - I thought the same as you on the cue speed rotation but read the instructions and found out that when you rotate cue left/right, the higher up the screen you do it, the faster it moves so do it at bottom for fine adjustments and at top for big adjustments - improved it so much when I found out!
January 14th, 2009 at 3:57 am
Gavin J
Thanks for the tip - I should have tried that - it's pretty logical now that I know.
This makes it near-perfect for me now.
January 14th, 2009 at 8:47 am
Thanks for the all praise guys, we're as excited as you about the game and we're determined to work on all feedback (including the more "passionate" posts).
We're compiling all the suggestions made both here and via email (if you're outside the UK, we may not see all feedback related in App Store reviews), and sketching out a reasonable roadmap. Expect more details in the near future, but generally if it's been mentioned already, it's on our hot list.
Some short answers:
Gavin: Re white ball, I believe so…
Mat: Re powerball, on the list
Best,
-at
January 14th, 2009 at 8:57 am
*Powerbar!
January 14th, 2009 at 9:43 am
okay - as I got my first ever iTunes giftcard today (unexpected) - had to get this game.
only played a little - so first thoughts.
This game is really, really good. Gameplay is nice and quick. Like the fact opponent is very quick with his shots.
altering view is pretty good with it being quicker to swing around the table using upper part of screen than lower (this negates the need for a fine-tune box a la Killer.
But, at times, in this, it's hard to tell if the object ball has a clear line to the pocket as the degree to which you can change your view is limited - I can see that playing with no guides whatsoever would be very difficult with current viewing options
(I reckon the addition of a free-form view where you could rotate around dead-centre of table and still had auto zoom from upper to lower views - would allow you to check if a ball is pot-able)
you cannot zoom view in and out like in Killer (best implementation with pinch) or VP (where you have to tap a button first and then swipe up/down) in this you view is automatically out further from above or zoomed in a bit more from lower
that does, however, mean that setting up shots is very quick in International Snooker - and I really like the spin setting implementation. I'd like option to turn off guides - but as it is this far from too easy ( it's only when you're really near a pocket that the guides make correct aim inevitable - which, in a way, is how it seems when playing for real)
Overall, I reckon that is a great Snooker implementation - a few minor quirks but I think I'll be playing this a lot in the coming weeks/months and looking forward to the promised updates - cheers to such responsive devs!
Personally, I'm glad I've got this, as well as VP and Killer as all have their pros and cons - for anyone who likes Snooker - getting this is a no-brainer
January 15th, 2009 at 1:14 am
Really enjoying this - great game so congrats.
Small bug.
If on the last red you pot a yellow - it is not returned to the table, you immediately go to the green.
Agree with the other comments about the physics being slightly out but not enough to be too annoying.
Be nice if the game had some other 'player stats', highest ever break, most balls potted etc.
Also of course be nice if a few other games such as billards, pool etc were added (I appreciate the 'name' of the game though.)
BTW - I like the guides, allows me to get some decent breaks and as the train moves around I'm not squinting like a madman trying to line something up.
Cheers
Tolax
January 15th, 2009 at 1:16 am
Sorry forgot to add - only thing I do not like is the 'ball in hand'. Unless there is some trick I am missing it is horrible trying to move the ball to where you want it. Be better if you could use the zoomed view or some arrow keys.
Tolax