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Premium Pool

Premium Pool is a top-view MMO pool game that lets players challenge each other, the AI, or play against themselves to a quick game of 8-ball in a variety of locations. Players can customize their cues, cloths, and tables to their liking.

Publisher: Iceflake Studios
Type: Pool MMO
Release Date: March 14, 2016
Shut Down: May 2017
Pros: +Fair cash shop. +Customizable equipment. +Quick matches. +Constant updates and improvements.
Cons: -Unrealistic and buggy ball physics. -Lacks a tutorial. -Buggy matchmaking system. -Low playerbase.

Overview

Premium Pool Overview

Do you have what it takes to take on some of the most skilled pool sharks from all over the world? Find out in Premium Pool, a top-view MMO pool game available through Steam. Practice by yourself in training mode or challenge other players in real-time, or highly-skilled AI, to a classic game of 8-ball in a variety of locations. Earn coins by winning matches and use them to purchase a variety of uniquely-designed pool equipment such as cues, cloths, and pool tables.

Premium Pool Key Features:

  • Online Multiplayer – challenge players from around the world to a classic 8-ball match.
  • Local Multiplayer – play against friends and family on a single machine.
  • Training Mode – practice pocketing, english, and trick shots at your own pace.
  • Customize Equipment – purchase a variety of cues, cloths, and tables that you can use in matches.
  • Choose Your Avatar – pick from a list of cool-looking pre-made avatars to match your mood and personality.

Premium Pool Screenshots

Premium Pool Featured Video

Full Review

Premium Pool Review

By, Marc Marasigan

Premium Pool is a top-view MMO pool game set in a variety of environments from a cluttered garage to a classy VIP pool club. The game lets players challenge each other to quick games of 8-ball with classic rules. The anime-inspired graphics are decent enough for a pool game but definitely won’t be winning any awards. The sound effects are ok but a bit unrealistic for my taste. I’ve been playing pool for more than a decade and I know how pool balls hitting each other sound.

Joined The Game, What Now?

Pool is a difficult game to learn in real life but certainly a whole lot easier in the gaming world. It takes a matter of minutes to learn the controls to virtually any pool game. Unfortunately, Premium Pool’s lack of a tutorial makes learning the controls a whole lot harder than it’s supposed to be. Having found no option for a tutorial when I first launched the game, I immediately joined a match thinking that the game would clue me in during my first match. Man, was I wrong.

I was first to break and had absolutely no idea how to hit the ball. I tried the spacebar, left mouse button, right mouse button, and virtually every key on the keyboard to no avail and ended up using the allotted time every single turn until I eventually decided to quit the match out of sheer embarrassment. After a few minutes of fumbling around in training mode, I finally figured out that I had to drag the cue-stick graphic down to initiate and adjust the power of my shot. A simple pop-up or even an arrow would have saved me all the trouble. Hopefully, the developers deal with this in succeeding updates.

Let’s Play 8-ball!

Premium Pool has one game mode: 8-ball. For those unfamiliar with the pool game the first player to pocket the black 8-ball after pocketing his/her assigned balls (either solids or stripes) wins the game. Pocketing the 8-ball before all the assigned balls have been pocketed automatically results in a loss. The game is perfect for beginners since the balls can be pocketed in no particular order, unlike 9-ball and 10-ball, and matches tend to be quick.

Mysterious Balls

Pool games, like racing games, are the type of games that require game physics to be spot on. Not exactly realistic, but close enough to make the game enjoyable. Unfortunately, Premium Pool falls short. For the most part, the balls behave like they’re supposed to, except for a few times when they decide to completely abandon the rules of physics such as balls sinking into holes when they’re supposed to stop a few virtual centimeters from the edge, or putting full spin on the cue ball and having it behave like you just gave it half spin. There were also a few times when I, or an opponent, failed to pocket the right ball but the game just went on as if we did.

Finding A Match

Finding an opponent to play against is as easy as clicking a button, actually getting to play against one is a different matter. The Premium Pool’s playerbase is so low (around 50 players at any given time) that it takes a while to actually get into a match, especially in higher tier matches. And by “a while” I mean 15 minutes or more. There was even a time when I was able to finish an episode of The Walking Dead and still haven’t found a match.

Cash Shop

If there’s one thing I like about Premium Pool is that its cash shop is one of the most balanced I’ve seen in free-to-play games. Players can buy cues, tables, cloths, and avatars using premium currency that can be purchased using real-world cash. All of the items are purely cosmetic and have absolutely no bearing on gameplay.

The Final Verdict – Fair

Premium Pool has a lot of potential for a free-to-play game. Unfortunately, it still needs a lot of work if it wants to compete with popular pool games like 8-ball Pool. Polishing the ball physics and adding more game modes, would do wonders for the game which would probably bring in more players, consequently solving the problem of long matchmaking times. An option to switch to 3D view would also be a welcome addition. As it is, I wouldn’t recommend the game unless you want to spend forever waiting for a game to start that would probably be over in less than 5 minutes.

Screenshots

Premium Pool Screenshots

Videos

Premium Pool Videos

Coming Soon!

System Requirements

Premium Pool System Requirements

Minimum Requirements:

Operating System: Windows XP SP2+
CPU: 1.5+ GHz
RAM: 1 GB RAM
Video Card: Intel HD 3000+
Direct X: DirectX 9.0
Hard Disk Space: 1 GB available space

Recommended Requirements:

Operating System: Windows 7
CPU: Quad Core 2.4 GHz
RAM: 6 GB RAM or more
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti / Radeon HD 6790
Direct X: DirectX 9.0
Hard Disk Space: 10 GB or more available space

Music

Premium Pool Music & Soundtrack

Coming Soon!

Additional Info

Premium Pool Additional Information

Developer: Iceflake Studios
Publisher: Iceflake Studios

Distributor: Steam

Official Release Date: March 14, 2016

Development History / Background:

Premium Pool is a free-to-play top-view pool game published and developed by independent Finnish game developers Iceflake Studios. The game is exclusively available on Steam and was officially released on March 14, 2016. The game is still currently in development and receives constant updates. Additional game modes coming in future updates. The game was shut down in May 2017, but a similar game by the same developer titled Premium Pool Arena is available on Steam.