Hands on with World Championship Pool 2009 on mobile

Football fans shout louder than snooker fans, which is why you might not have realised that there are two battles for supremacy in the world of sphere-centric sports games this month. While Gameloft, Glu and EA are scrapping for the football trophy, I-play and Player One are quietly tussling for the pool crown.

We reported earlier today that Player One is due to release Steve Davis Pool Star in a couple of weeks, but before that arrives there's World Championship Pool 2009, the latest annual outing for I-play's slick 3D pool simulator. The review's on the way, but to tide you over here's a quick hands-on.

You can take on 32 of the world's best professional pool players, and there are three modes. Championship lets you choose your rules and enter a knockout contest. Challenges is kind of like a training mode, in that it forces you to master skills like doubling, planting, playing cannons, and so on. You get Bronze, Silver, or Gold medals, depending on how well you do.

Then there's Survival Challenges. I didn't manage to unlock it, but I'd bet around 40 pence that it involves doing challenges and getting booted back to the start whenever you fail one.

Outside these, there's also a Quick Game mode, where you get to choose from the usual three types of pool (UK 8-ball, US 8-ball, and 9-ball).

The game tracks your stats as you play, and as you take part in championship matches you accrue experience, which makes your player better. There's also pass-the-handset multiplayer mode.

Still present, of course, are the swinging, gyrating, showboating polygons by which the series can be identified at twenty paces, and this will either be an advantage or a distraction depending on the kind of person you are. It's all very nicely rendered, though, and my N81 ran the game without a glitch or a hint of slowdown.

Like most graphically rich games, it insists on showing off as much as it can. To avoid having to watch the players actually bending over the table and cueing every shot, you have to switch them off entirely. Once a shot's been taken, however, you can speed up time.

This is all very well, but the only thing that really matters is the gameplay: the ball-physics and the interface. You swing the table around with '4' and '6',and adjust it up and down with '2' and '8'. Taking your shot works in the same way as in a golf game, with a power bar that pumps up and down. It's fine.

Same goes for the physics. About this time last year I criticised the previous game in the series for not having entirely credible physics - the ball seemed to bounce off in odd directions. I found no such complaints this time. The aiming chevrons still don't move to indicate where the ball will go after you add spin, and the screw seems a bit lively, but it all seems largely authentic.

Time will tell whether I-play can beat Player One to the black this time around. Regardless of who your money's on, this is looking like a solid addition to the franchise. Click 'Track It!' to catch our imminent review.