Year:  1993

Genre:  Sport

Number of Players:  1-2

Back when I was growing up my parents had a really nice pool table at there house.  My friends and I used to play pool all the time on it.  Years later we got a pool hall near were I worked and my friends and I used to spend hours just hanging out there.  Well, the pool hall closed up over a decade ago as of this writing, and my parents do not have there house anymore and I was in the mood to play a game of pool.  While this game is far from actually playing it in person, it did scratch that itch I had to play.

Side Pocket for the SNES is pretty much the same game as it was on the NES.  The SNES version looks and sounds better but the fundamental game-play is still the same.  The game has five stages and your goal in each stage is to clear the table and earn enough points to progress to the next stage.  There is an option for a second player to go against you in a normal pool match or a nine ball match, neither of which were tested for this review.  There is also a trick shot mode were you try your hand at making some pretty tough shots.

When you are at the pool table, you move around a dotted line that represents the way the ball is going to go when hit.  You then pick how strong you want your to be and off the cue ball goes, hitting anything in it's path.  Just like playing real pool, the goal is shoot other balls on the table into one of the six holes on the table.  The game occasionally has certain holes marked as bonus holes and getting a ball in one will usually get you bonus points.  Every time you don't get a ball in a hole or put the cue ball into a hole you lose a life and once you lose all your lives the game is over. 

The game plays pretty good and I have no problems with the controls or the game's format.  However, even if you clear the table, you still have to hit a point threshold in order to move to the next stage.  I had times where I cleared the table but because I didn't get the balls in order, get the balls in one after another or didn't get all the special holes on the table when they should up, I didn't have enough points to move on.  I also didn't like how each stage didn't give you back all your lives, but that is a personal gripe.  Also, without the manual I didn't know how to move the spot on the cue ball where I was striking it.  This isn't a major deal, but depending on where you hit the cue ball it does affect how the ball reacts and that can help make some harder shots, just like when playing the game in real life.

When playing a SNES game, I expect the graphics to look decent and this game does a good job with that.  Everything here looks good from the menu screens and the pool table itself.  The audio in this game is really good.  Granted, this game doesn't have many sound effects or anything crazy.  But the music is very well done and it is fun to listen to.  This is one of those games I keep the music on for and it even has a jukebox where you can listen to all the songs from.

This is a game that I can pop in, play for fifteen to thirty minutes and put back down.  The game plays well, looks good and sounds even better.  There is not a lot of depth to it though and while no two games I played went the same way, I'm sure if I spent more time with this game I could figure out all the tips and tricks pretty quickly.  I wish I had the manual for this game as it would have helped figure a few things out but thankfully there are copies of it online.  This game does not replace playing pool in real life, but it did scratch that itch for the time being.