World Snooker Championship 2007 - PS3 review

Pot luck or the one to pot?

13 April 2007 0:00 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Snooker, you either love it or you hate it. It's either edge of the sit stuff or drags on so much that you ask "anyone fancy a pint?". Well Snooker has landed on Sony's next generation console, so should you be grabbing your coat or settling in for the night? We pick up a cue and find out.

Broken down into a number of areas, it's fair to say that this is, not that it has much competition, probably the most in-depth snooker game that you'll come across. Already available on a number of formats including the Xbox 360, World Snooker Championship 2007 on the PS3 offers the chance to play in a Championship, have a quick game against the computer, challenge a mate, and get the low down on how to play the game (the Xbox 360 version has online capabilities, but not the PS3 version).

Beyond that, you can then choose your game of preference. Quick Play offers Snooker, 9 Ball Pool, Bar Billards, Billards, and 8 Ball Pool, while the Championship mode offers Trick Shot, Snooker, Pool, Hybrid and Golden Cue.

So there's plenty of choice, but what about the gameplay? Well the game might be in-depth, but it's incredible slow and precise - just like snooker then.

Well no, the greatest problem we had was the controller and its movement. This was taken to the extent that we had to use two hands most of the time. Nudge the controller a too little and you're not on target, a fraction too far and you've got to nudge it back, over and over and over again. For the most part, this took so long that even John Virgo, who commentates with Steve Davies and John Parrot, started having a go at us for taking so long.

When you do eventually take the shot if it's anything other than perfect, Virgo - who's voiceover is drier than the Sahara desert - only berates you even more. I thought video games were supposed to make you feel good about yourself and be an enjoyable experience?

Of course missing a shot means your opponent is up to the table and if you're playing the computer (it's considerably quicker than playing your mate) you've then got to sit through what normally amounts to a big break, him potting all the balls. In fairness you can skip this, but get carried away with the skip button and you'll find yourself mistakenly taking your own, unprepared, shot without due planning, which of course means you've got to sit through another big break and normally if you are really unlucky the end of the game.

Verdict

Although the depth and knowledge is here, there is plenty wrong with World Championship Snooker 2007. One for die-hard snooker fans only.

Score

Review Recap

Made by: Sega
Price as reviewed: £35
The good: Depth of games available
The bad: Controls, commentary from John Virgo
Quick verdict: Although the depth and knowledge is here, there is plenty wrong with World Championship Snooker 2007
Score