Pool games have never really taken the video game world by storm and there are small gamers who enjoy such games. I have never seen a different take on billiards/pool games because maybe developers thought it won’t work. Well, it does with King Strike by VisualMedia. King Strike is not really a pool game but it derived its element from it, made a good story behind it and blends in some nice ides into the table.

Krakabur, an evil magician has taken the prince of Ice Kingdom. King Mirolad, the King, is not happy about it and would do anything to bring back the heir to his throne and have the evil magician be punished. Along the way you’ll face several enemies that you must take out to get close to your mission.

The game consists of 30 single player levels that progressively becomes challenging as new obstacles are introduced like bombs and holes. If you know or just familiar at how you strike a ball in pool, the learning curve will just be easy. Your goal is to eliminate all enemies (the red balls) onscreen before they eliminate you (the blue ones). Eliminating all the enemies will have you win the level and move up on the next one. If you managed to put two or more enemies off screen, there will be a little bonus roulette which unfortunately, the game doesn’t mention the purpose of the that stuff so you have to use your common sense or even guess what does it do to affect the gameplay.

Mulitplayer is pass-and-play and has 15 unique levels and that’s where the true action takes off because you’ll have to compete on a real human this time around.

Playing this game is like playing a pool. You control the ball by touching one and a broken line will appear that will guide your ball’s direction. You can drag it anywhere you prefer. At the bottom of the screen is a strength indicator for each hit. You can adjust it like what you’d do in a real pool game. The game controls great and with a great physics system, you’ll get the hang of it in a matter of seconds.

The graphics is nice and very simple. You’ll see three variation of the background depending on what level you’re playing on, it’s a nice variety. The story is being told in hand-drawn visuals and looks good. Sound effects are spot-on and the music is good enough but nothing special.

Future plans for the game includes global high-scores and the ability to play multiplayer via internet, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, something to look forward to. Overall, this game is a good time-waster. If you love pool games, you’ll love King Strike especially with the addition of a story and unusual take on the game.

4 out of 5

King Strike on the App Store.