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Video pool must be a really hard sell.  It must be.  What other reason would there be to explain the layers of completely superfluous crud found in The Hustle: Detroit Streets. Do we really need an edgy pool game? The sad part is, underneath all of that crud is a perfectly acceptable game of pool.  It ain’t perfect, mind you, but it’s pool.  And presumably, playing pool is why you would want to buy a game like this to begin with.

Do The Hustle

The Hustle: Detroit Streets is a straight up port of the PSP version of the game.  While it’s essentially a pool simulation, the game also attempts to add flavor by making the player out to be some kind of up-and-coming pool shark.  The single-player game has a story you can safely and immediately file under “awful,” “boring,” and “pointless.”  Take your pick.

Basically, trying to inject the story mode with some kind of gritty, inner-city feel isn’t necessarily a bad idea, but in the case of The Hustle, the implementation is strictly amateur hour. But even if you’ve wisely chosen to completely ignore the story, you will still have to content with the faux gritty setting because it bleeds into practically everything you do in this game.

The Color of Money

The gameplay follows a familiar path.  Players visit pool halls and challenge computer controlled players to games.  You win money by winning games and taking bets on the side.  Move up to the next challenger and continue on.  Not a bad formula, especially considering the game gives you many ways of customizing your character to please your personal aesthetic.  But almost every moment in the game is filled with things that make you want to turn it off.

While the game sports over 100 different challengers, you’ll be struck by the sameness of it all.  One game of pool pretty much feels like any other.  The inclusion of many different pool variants is a welcome one, except that each one must be slowly unlocked by playing through the awful story mode.

Rack ‘em Up

The mechanics of pool appear to be sound, but the player must sweat through a needlessly convoluted control scheme in order to simply smack the ball.  Many of the most basic functions require combinations of button presses and button holds.  Just getting a clear shot of the table can be difficult. You even need to hold down a shoulder button to put the analog stick in “fine tune” mode.  Fellas, it’s an analog stick.  Gently nudging it should be all I need to do to “fine tune” my shot.

After you’ve cramped up your fingers setting up your shot, you’ll notice that The Hustle uses a shot meter to actually execute your shot.  Press the button at the right time and your shot will go as planned.  Missed shots will go off course.  Players can also opt to use a shooting control similar to the swing controls in the latest Tiger Woods games.  You pull back on the right analog stick and push forward at the appropriate time.  We found the first method works a lot better.
 
Can I Borrow a Feeling?

Adding to the complexity are two meters that represent intimidation and intuition.  The intimidation meter goes down as you sink shots and fills up when you miss them.  When your player is intimidated, shots are harder to make.  This is reflected in the speed of the shot meter.  It’s a good idea that doesn’t have enough of an effect on the gameplay. The intuition meter fills up when you sink complicated shot.  You use intuition to “buy” insight into how you might sink a particularly complex shot.  Again, a good idea showing that underneath the controls is a competent game of pool.

But you still have to play in the less-than-savory settings provided in the game.  Had they been convincingly portrayed, this might have been a plus, but that’s simply not the case.  As you play, the digital crowd watching the game will heckle you with the same four or five annoying phrases over and over again.  Even after sinking an incredibly complicated shot, chances are, some idiot in the crowd will shout out “Are you sure you’re holding the stick right?”  Um yeah, numb nuts, did you see the shot I just made?

Hustled

Despite being a good pool game, the fact that you have to live with the horribly conceived setting and sloppy controls makes The Hustle: Detroit Streets a play out like a missed opportunity.

Article by: Greg Bemis
Video Produced by: Michael Benson