Having a few games of pool or darts with your mates down the pub, with a pint of lager in your hand and some friendly banter, can be a lot of fun, but translating that sense of gamesmanship, atmosphere and competition into a video game is a tough task for any developer. The PS Vita-exclusive Indoor Sports World by British indie developer Super Icon Ltd attempts to do just that by offering not one but four of the nation’s most popular pub-themed past-times, including Snooker, Pool, Darts and Air Hockey, all for the very respectable price of just £3.99. Sounds like a bargain, right?
Well, things start off pretty well with players greeted with a variety of game modes and the option to set up a real photo avatar, which is a nice personal touch. You can practice to your hearts content, with no pressure, in ‘Practice’ mode, or jump into an ‘Exhibition’ match with single-player and tournament modes. You can tackle 30 A.I. controlled, increasingly challenging opponents in ‘Arcade’ mode, or jump into ‘Season’ mode which takes you through 12 gruelling seasons in an attempt to win numerous cups and make your way to world number one in the offline rankings.
There’s a local multiplayer mode too, which is a nice added extra, along with a shop where players can buy (with real cash) the likes of new darts sets, snooker cues and tables. Why anyone would want to spend more money on aesthetic upgrades that no-one else will get to see is beyond us. Nevertheless, £0.79 will net you a host of swag to customise your game; and, hey, microtransactions seem to be all the rage these days.
There’s some decent game variations and customisation options too. In Darts, you can choose between 701/501 and 301, or perhaps opt for a more light-hearted game of ‘Around the Clock’, while pool allows you to choose between 9- ball, 8 -ball and 6- ball variations. Snooker also offers two options of either 6 or 15-ball, while Air Hockey is the only game that has one variation, simply requiring players to hit the puck into the opposition’s goal in order to win.
Tactical and challenging, pool and snooker are easily the highlights
You can also choose between eight different locations to brighten up the back-drops, from the typically British-styled Red Lion Pub to the very cool video game-themed 16-bit bar. Each location features a different audio track too and there’s some decent, if a little repetitive, tunes ranging from 70s funk to light rock, which fit the mood of each scene nicely.
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For such a low-priced game, and with what must have been a tight budget, indie developer Super Icon Ltd has done well to offer some visual variety and plenty of gameplay options to get stuck into, particularly the local multiplayer mode, which may possibly be worth the price alone for some competitive folk. In terms of gameplay though, it’s a mixed bag.
In Snooker and Pool, for example, touchscreen controls are erratic. While striking the ball and using your finger to pull back the cue feels intuitive, most of the other touchscreen options feel too fiddly and over-sensitive to bother with. Indeed, lining up shots is far less frustrating if you simply use the d-pad to tweak your shot lines. Nevertheless, Super Icon has done a great job with ball physics and as you’d expect the force in which you hit the ball and its impact on the other balls is just like the real thing.
There’s some decent options for camera angles too, such as the ability to zoom in and out with the bumpers, pan around the ball with the touchscreen or d-pad and switch to an overhead look with the ‘triangle’ button. However, we’d have liked to have had the ability to pan around the entirety of the table so we could plan positioning a little better. Overall, though you don’t have the same depth and level of polish as the likes of Hustle Kings, and despite some flaws (you can easily pot two balls immediately from every pool break) there’s still enjoyment and challenge to be had from trying to beat some tricky A.I. opponents.
Darts, however, is pretty awful. There’s little skill needed to move your finger slowly across the screen and place it in the exact area where you want to throw the dart. Once you’ve placed it exactly over the treble-20, the only thing you need to do to hit it is make a perfect vertical line sweep forwards on the touchscreen to throw it. The problem is it’s so inconsistent. One second we’re scoring three treble 20s and next we’re landing shots closer to the bullseye, despite making exactly the same movements. Consequently, we found the whole experience very frustrating and out of the four games on offer, Darts is not a game we’ll return to any time soon.
Skill doesn’t really seem to come into
The most fast-paced game on offer is Air Hockey, though its lack of depth and simplistic gameplay mechanics make it a fairly dull affair. Gameplay simply requires players to move their finger across the touchscreen to control the direction of the mallet, pushing it forward to whack the puck toward the opposition’s goal and making sure you get back to defend your own. It’s fun for a while, and we can see why people may enjoy battling against each other in local multiplayer matches, but its lack of depth and the fact that the tips of your fingers are as big as the actual mallets (thus obscuring your view) means there’s little reason to keep playing.
With a Darts game that feels broken and an Air Hockey game that we have little motivation to keep on playing, Indoor Sports World relies heavily on its decent, albeit unspectacular, pool and snooker offerings. Nevertheless, there’s few reasons to recommend this Vita exclusive to anyone but the most casual of gamers, specifically those who haven’t already played some of the better variations of these sports in the past.