It was a cold December 1981.  I’d just moved house the week before Christmas despite there being several feet of snow on the ground.  When I awoke on Christmas Day morning, my parents directed me to the spare bedroom where a 6-feet snooker table awaited me.  As I placed the cue ball next to the brown ball in the baulk, that was it - I was hooked.  My love affair with snooker had begun.  Twelve months later my parents bought me my first computer  - a Commodore Vic 20, and a few months later I had purchased the only snooker game for the Vic 20. All these years later, and here I am playing the latest and greatest effort from the Snooker 200x series, which until recently was published by Codemasters, but the title has now been taken over by SEGA. It continues to be developed by Blade Interactive, though.

When Snooker 2007 first loads up, you are taken to a menu screen whereby you select the type of game you want.  The menu screen, despite being easy to navigate is bland and uninspiring. Why this couldn’t have been smartened up a bit beats me. It’s almost as though it was added as an after thought, with little care as to the presentation. Anyway, there are a number of different types of game to play including snooker, 8- and 9-ball pool, all of which have their own respective world championships. There is also a new trickshot championship which is a nice addition to the series. To my great disappointment however, traditional British pub pool (with the red and yellow balls) has been dropped. Previous versions of this game have included this variation, and personally, this proved to be a considerable issue because I prefer the British version to the standard 8- or 9-ball games. There is also the option of online competitions, whereby you can take on other human opponents. Unfortunately I did not have the opporunity to try these.

Graphics have been enhanced, but not spectacularly so.  That said, the ten officially endorsed tournaments have been accurately recreated, particularly The Crucible - home to the World Championship, which is instantly recognisable. Commentary is provided by the trio of Messrs Parrott, Virgo and Davis, but their near-robotic sounding voices sometimes border on the monotonous.  Playing shots is done by using the D-pad to aim, then using the X button to select power and again to execute the shot. Pressing the circle button allows you to apply spin. Whilst simple and effective, the control system is not as realistic as it’s PC counterparts, and this is it’s major downfall. Whilst I accept that it’s impossible to recreate the Wii’s control system on the PS2, surely use of the analogue sticks to play a shot might add a touch more realism. EA have used this control method for the Tiger Woods series of games, and more recently Cricket 2007, and it does make a big difference. Sega, please take note.

The one area of this game which has impressed me is the new positional play aspect.  When you are aiming a shot, a large grey circle appears which provides you with a guide as to where the cue ball is likely to end up following your shot, taking into account your selected power and spin. This is a nice touch, especially considering that the level of AI is pretty tricky.   I have found that in all of the Snooker 200x series, the AI has been particularly difficult to beat, with this version being no different. One simple mistake and the AI, no matter how lowly ranked, will still punish you, and may well clear the table in one go. Then again, in the real world when you get to be a professional, one mistake can make all the difference between success and failure. The positional play aspect gives you a little more help, and scoring breaks of over 30 becomes consistently possible.

You can guarantee that when Wimbledon is filling the schedules of BBC1 and BBC2, children are dusting off their racquets, clogging up the tennis courts, in the hope they will be the next British superstar.  Snooker 2007 is a little like that in that the game is most likely to be played during the time of the World Championship in May. It’s appeal outside of the championship season is perhaps a little limited. Still, Snooker 2007 is the best of the snooker/pool games available on the console platforms by a mile; however if you own the previous 2005 version, spending £25 on this new updated entry in the series may not be worth it. Buying it second hand maybe the best option. Don’t get me wrong,  Snooker 2007 is a good game but it could be much, much better.