Should you become bored of playing by yourself then you can take your hustling skills online and face off against a human player, upon entering or creating a game lobby you can choose an opponent and challenge them to a game deciding amongst yourselves how much you would like to wager on the outcome of the match, it's a good system that works well, however, there is no voice chat available, so, if you're looking for a quiet chat or a bit of banter as you play with a friend then you're going to be disappointed. You can communicate in the main lobbies by using the virtual or a real USB keyboard but that doesn't alleviate the disappointment of not having any voice communication facilities.
Control of the game is done in two ways but with only one main difference really, you use the analogue sticks to adjust the cue height, where on the cue ball you would like to strike to adjust the spin of the ball, and initial power is set with the bottom shoulder buttons. Actually striking the ball is where the difference comes in, you can use the analogue sticks to strike the ball allowing you to fine tune the power as you see fit, or you can use the control strike method which see's an accuracy bar circle around your cue ball, once this bar meets with another at the top of the ball then a quick press of the X button will execute the move. Before you take your shot you do have the chance to view it from various angles so you can make your choice; there is the 'down the cue' approach to the shot where you can see how the balls lay as you would in real life before taking your shot, you can also view the table from above, and finally, you have a roaming camera which allows you to check out the table from whichever view you want to take. To help you take your shot there is a line projected out of the cue ball which allows you to see the general path of the ball, this makes it easier when bouncing the ball off a cushion, once the point of the line makes contact with the ball you are aiming for then the a second line will show the path of that ball. How far the line extends out is based on the power of the shot and it won't always show the full path so caution should be made not to rely on this feature to much. You'll also want to make sure there is plenty of chalk on the end of your cue as well to avoid any miss hits of the ball, this is just a case of shaking the controller, the status of the chalk can be seen on screen at all times so you know what state it's in before taking your shot, however bonus money can also be earned from your shots if you keep the chalk to a minimum so you might want to take that into consideration depending on the difficulty of the shot.
The graphics in the game are superb, each game takes place in a superbly rendered pool hall and the tables and balls are first class; the balls especially look nice and shiny, the way the light reflects off of them is realistic and the reflections of the other balls on the table and other objects in the pool hall can clearly be seen. It's only a subtle effect but adds huge amounts to the overall presentation of the game. The camera work is minimal, but, it doesn't have to be anything else and it will always follow your ball and make the shot you just took look good if it's heading for a pocket. If you manage to pull off a particularly stunning shot then you can save this out to watch to your hearts content, as indeed you can the whole match if you so desire. These saved replays can then be uploaded straight to YouTube so you can show off your hustling skills to your friends and family, though this might not be to good an idea if you want to hustle them!
The music in the game suits it perfectly, you've got the choice of varying different styles which are picked at random, there is a selection of Hip Hop, Lounge, Funk, Techno and Jazz to select from and don't worry if one of those irritates you as you can select not to have that style included in the play list. If you're adamantly opposed to all of those styles and want to listen to your own music, then you can listen to any tracks saved to the hard drive of your PS3. The sound effects in the game are of a equally high standard to that of the graphics, the balls knocking together all sound realistic as does the sound of the cue striking the cue ball, right down to the horrifying sound of a miss hit ball when there's not enough chalk on the cue, this all adds up to an immersing experience when playing the game.
There are a couple of minor niggles for us; the CPU AI seems to go from being pretty pathetic to more than competent pretty quickly when playing through the career mode, particularly annoying when you've to go back to playing through the lesser matches in order to gain enough money to enter the competition you just lost again. As mentioned earlier you can play your own music when in the game, but it's not obvious as to how to do this as it's not in any of the options menus. To get this feature to work you've to go into the PlayStation XMB and start the music from there, once this is done the normal in game music will cut out and you can listen to your own music instead. The final issue is the inclusion of in-game adverts for other games, it's nothing to obtrusive, just like a banner you would see on most web sites these days, but it's there all the same. However, considering the low cost of the game one must presume that this must go someway to offset that so we can forgive it a little.
Overall the presentation of the game is superb, the low cost of the game is a brilliant price point for the sheer quality of it all, if only all PSN games where this polished and offered so much value for money we'd all be happier people indeed; VooFoo studios have made an excellent first impression on us with this title and we can't wait to see what they do next.
If you're a fan of pool then Hustle Kings comes highly recommended, the single player mode has enough variety to keep you entertained for a short amount of time but once you've completed all the challenges then there is going to be little to go back for. The inclusion of the online game should keep the game going and worth coming back to for some time, plus, you'll be happy to hear that there is news spreading about some additional DLC to be released sometime in 2010 which will expand the game by allowing the game of Snooker to be played as well. This is one title that you should definitely check out soon.
