XBLA review: Bankshot Billiards 2 (3/10)

Yeah, I bought it. It was early, there weren't a lot of titles available, so I thought I'd see what it had. Besides, it did boast an impressive array of features: 8-ball, 9-ball, cutthroat, continuous, and various other modes ...

Ah, those were the days, before I knew what I was getting into. Bankshot Billiards 2 is, well ... if you have to have pool for the 360, I guess it'll do, but really, you could do so much better. Heck, I think Virtual Pool 2 for the PC was probably better.

First of all, this is one of those HD-specific games. If you have a standard TV, good luck (I do, by the way). You won't be able to identify the balls easily unless you have a huge TV or are very close to it. The worst part is when you're playing cutthroat or 8-ball and have to pick your balls - the dialog box pops up squarely in the middle of the table, so you can't really see where the balls are, and even if you could, you wouldn't be able to identify them (although it does highlight balls in the group you select).

Depending on the level of aiming help you get, the game is insanely difficult, very difficult, or somewhat difficult. Your best bet is a shot where the target ball is close to a pocket, but not very close: too far away and you can't tell where it'll go, too close and the helpful aiming arrow is invisible.

The AI is, well ... it seems to hit every shot that involves banking the cue ball before hitting the target ball, but misses too many straight shots.

Some of the achievements are reasonable, but others are nearly impossible. Win 5 straight games without losing a turn? Huh? Winning 50 games without losing a turn is worth as much as playing 200 games total? Whatever. It wouldn't be so bad if you could actually find a place that showed how many games you'd sharked, but no, you won't find that anywhere.

The other modes are pretty disappointing. Time trial tables in under a minute? Wouldn't be so bad if the game didn't run 10 seconds off the clock while the cue ball slowly runs down the channel to the, well, wherever it goes once it's in a pocket. Complete 50 trick shots? For 15 gamerscore? Yeah, right after I play 100 levels of Gauntlet.

9-ball isn't bad, but aside from that, I'd pass on this game (there's something wrong with European 8-ball, but I can't remember what). Maybe it's better with a high-def TV.

zlionsfan's rating for normal TVs: 3 scratches out of 10.