After Mark Williams was left off the cover, his wife accused the game’s creators of having an anti-Welsh bias
Snooker 19
THIS LIKEABLE, ULTRA-SERIOUS SIM TAKES ITS POT AT THE BIG TIME DAVE MEIKLEHAM
PUBLISHER RIPSTONE GAMES / DEVELOPER LAB42 / RELEASE DATE OUT NOW / COST £29.99/$34.99
venues. All 128 pros from the World
Snooker Tour appear – even if many of
them look like dead-eyed, waxy White
Walkers – while official arenas from
all recognised 26 tournaments also
feature. If you’re a snooker obsessive,
the exhaustive use of the Tour licence
will get your rest purring.Doctor cue
Cueing is also very good and, crucially,
reliable. When you misjudge a pot
and watch in horror as that key red
pings away from the pocket because
you misjudged the angle, you know
it’s on your own poor judgement, not
wayward physics. Following an easy-
to-understand three-tier structure,
shooting in Snooker 19 is both
responsive and rewarding... as long as
you get your angles right.
To initially help you line up a shot,
the game starts you off with an
overhead view, providing the most
complete picture of how the balls
are lying. Once you’ve selected thatFor a sport that
revolves around the
po-faced precision
placement of billiard
balls, snooker
can be brilliantly
bonkers. Mark Williams doing a press
conference in nothing but his boxers
after winning the World Championship.
Ronnie O’Sullivan getting knocked out
by an amateur at the same event this
year. Dennis Taylor wearing specs with
frames so large, you could spot them
from orbit. Sadly, Lab42’s sim isn’t
quite as madcap.
Though Snooker 19 plays it straight
with pedestrian presentation, this
cueing champ remains a quietly
impressive simulation. Is it a bit light
on modes? Sure. The barebones
campaign, which lets you compete in
a variety of licensed tournaments with
either a top-tier pro or a plucky upstart
amateur, has zero pizzazz. Still, at
least it serves up quite the billiard
banquet when it comes to players and
alluring red or colour ball (provided
you’ve already sunk a red), Snooker 19
gives you the opportunity to further
fine-tune thanks to a more intimate
third-person view. Once you’re
confident your angle is good it’s
then time to switch to the final
cinematic view that frames your pro
from evocative perspectives as he
attempts to sink the pot. After that, all
that’s left to do is flick the right stick
to match the level of power you’ve
selected, then pray to the snooker
gods you’ve lined your pot up properly.
It’s a deep and satisfying system,
one that initially seems daunting but,
after a little practice, soon becomes
second nature. For those looking for
big breaks, which are often crucial
to beating the AI on higher difficulty
levels, the game offers avenues for
tweaking your shots that can prove
crucial for effective positional play.
Just like the real sport, it’s key
to plan several pots ahead. To do
so, applying back or top-spin, thenshort
cutWHAT IS IT?
The first snooker
game in years to be
officially licensed.
WHAT’S IT LIKE?
Real snooker...
minus the obnoxious
crowd hollering.
WHO’S IT FOR?
Folk who go to bed
dreaming of chalk,
rests and cues.080 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE
REVIEW