Oh dear, Mastertronic must seriously be running out of ideas in their software development department to have released this. Not only is Pool one of the most boring and pointless games that you can convert, it's been proven time and time again that it doesn't work when you do convert it. Alas, Mastertronic have gone and done it anyway and have come up with a pretty mediocre offering.

After reading through the compulsory instruction screens (which only echo everything you've just read in the manual) you are presented with the standard birds-eye view of the table that sits longways across the screen. There's nothing revolutionary about the control mode either, except instead of a crosshair, you are given a replica of the cue ball with which to determine exactly where your ball is going to go. Initially of course, this is aimed at the pack of seven spots, seven stripes and the black.

After positioning your cue ball (which you have only nine seconds to do) the view switches to show your right hand on the pool table in the 'bridge' position with the cue sliding along it. You view the cue in much the same way as you view the jousting lance in Defender Of The Crown. From here, you can wiggle the cue around and therefore decide what sort of spin you're going to put on the ball, be it topspin, sidespin, screw, etc. For a more accurate display of exactly of how the ball is going to react when you hit it, a series of graphs are provided in the top-left-hand corner of the screen to indicate the various amounts of spin, strength and time (yes, you only get ten seconds here as well) all of which are determined by movements of the mouse. Finally, you hit the mouse button to take your shot and the view flicks back to the table where your shot is then automatically played. If you manage to pot a ball, you then have to go about potting the other six balls in the same 'suit'. Should you miss (which you'll do quite a lot) the play reverts to your opponent. In one player mode, the shot selection screen is missed out as the computer takes his shot straight away.

Should any player hit a ball that's not one of his 'suit', or accidentally pots the cue ball, a foul shot is declared (with some dodgy sampled speech) and the opponent is given two visits to the table plus a free ball. Play continues like this until somebody manages to pot all the balls in his suit followed by the black, but should anybody pot the black by accident before all the other balls have been pocketed, he immediately loses.

What more is there for me to say? I've described the control method, given you the rules of the game, what else is there for me to do... Ah yes, I can moan about how bad the game is. For a start, the graphics are nowhere near as good as they could have been, for although the balls are animated well enough, it can sometimes be difficult to work out if a ball is a spot or a stripe if it stops at an awkward angle. Sound is on a par with the graphics (not very good) with the worst piece of speech I've ever heard on any computer, and considering all the Amiga has to say is 'Foul Shot', it's obvious that it's been a bit of a rush job.

But far worse than all this are the appallingly bad logistics. It's impossible to play a proper game, because the balls never go where you want them to. I was experimenting with spin, and positioned the cue ball to the far left of the target ball so that it would roll to the right, but against all laws of physics, the ball went off to the left! Power is a joke, as I found many a time that if a cue ball that has lost all of its momentum and just snicks another ball as it stops, that ball will often shoot across the table at top speed!

The computer offers no competition whatsoever and just opts to hit whatever ball is closest, which means foul shots occur frequently. In fact, I could go on for a few more pages just picking out all the faults that Pool has, but being the nice and considerate guy that I am (ahem) I won't because I don't want to embarrass the programmer any further. All I will say is that Pool is unadulterated twaddle that no self-respecting Amiga games player should own.