Laying down for trickshots

Talk about cornering the market. There are only two PSP games involving snooker or pool and UK developer Blade Interactive has made both of them. First to be released was Sega’s World Snooker Challenge 2005 but the forthcoming The Hustle: Detroit Streets promises a very different take on the green baize.

The main change is the decision to cut adrift from the polite world of real-world championship snooker and to focus on a gritty single-player story mode which, as the game’s title suggests, involves “hustling” on the mean streets of “Detroit”.

You start off as the dollarless, but presumably talented, Jack Stone (or Kat Hudson if you’re expressing your feminine side), who has to rack up the points and the cash to become the top player in the city. There’s a practice mode where you can hone your skills playing one-off matches against computer-controlled opponents, while you and one other player can also play and bet against each other in the wi-fi multiplayer mode.

In each situation you can play trickshots and gamble on anything that rolls - from one-off shots (spot bets) to betting on your own games or even other people’s matches. The point is to open up new challenges as well as gain the ability to unlock and buy items such as clothes and fancy new cues.