E3 2010: Shooting pool with the Hustle Kings and the PlayStation Move controller on PS3

The few minutes I played Hustle Kings in the Sony Booth at E3 2010 were easily the most frustrating of all my gaming endeavors and time spent at the expo.

From the beginning the game seemed to be pretty cool. You stand with the Move controller in hand, pointed at the PlayStation Eye camera and wait for the game to calibrate and track your movements. It then super imposes a pool stick in your hand on the screen. Pretty nice.

Then you switch to the table-side view where you can line up your shot by simply moving the Move slightly to one side or the other. So far, seemingly so good.

Then you can click into the game further and either get a top-table view or simply change your angle. Nifty yellow lines scatter from your ball to the rest of the table, showing you how your current orientation, if hit properly (that will be key), will send the target ball and the cue ball on the table. Also very helpful.

You’ve likely seen similar scenarios in other pool games. You can then hold down the Move button to fine-tune your shot, moving the angles ever so slightly around the cue ball until you line up the perfect shot.

You are even supposed to chalk the cue – when you perform a tricky shot, for example – by twisting the move controller much as you would a cue stick to a chalk cube. Cute.

But, when you try to actually shoot, the game goes to Hell.

From there you are supposed to move your arm back, in the same motion as pulling back your cue stick, hold down a button and thrust your arm forward, propelling your in-game cue stick at the cue ball with supposedly accurate speed, angle (put on as much English as you want, they claim) and follow-through.

Unfortunately, neither the speed, angle nor the follow through seemed to be accurate in the Sony booth that day.

Instead, the ball was either whacked in some random direction, at some moment before or after I actually moved my arm or it registered my vigorous arm-Move movement as something less than able to break the balls.

I could not get in one accurate shot to save my life, the computer was constantly clearing the table (boring) and no arm motion would result in a decent hit. The Sony booth attendant tried to tell that I was raising my arm which was causing the many mis-hits but even when I crouched down, held my arm steady with my other hand and pushed it in the straightest line I could make right at the Eye camera, it was a no go.

After numerous tries, fiddling with the menus (which are all button driven) and even re-calibrating the Move, both I and the booth attendant had enough. Apparently there was also a button-only method for playing but this was the PlayStation Move booth so there would be none of that.

Message at the bottom reads: “The PlayStation(R) Move is not being tracked. Please ensure the PlayStation(R) Move is visible to the camera.”

Maybe the booth has some mitigating circumstance but (a la Xbox 360 Kinect game Game Party: In Motion ), for now, it’s pretty much the only all-around bad gaming experience I had at E3 2010.

Booth technicalities aside, another major issue may be accurate arm movement which may be impossible without an actual cue stick in your hand. There is nothing steadying your gaming arm with the plane of the table. Of course, Sony could concoct some some type of pool stick cozy, much like WiiMote’s use, but, even then, you’d need to stead it on some type of platform (table, chair, maybe a friend’s shoulder).

I’m very skeptical of this as a Move game but really want to give this more of a go – especially at the download-only price – sans impatient booth attendant and with a lot more at-home practice.

Hustle Kings was developed by VooFoo Studios, published by Sony Computer Entertainment and currently available via PlayStation Network for the PS3. The ability to use the Move controller with Hustle Kings is expected to be available Christmas 2010.

Photo Gallery [Hustle Kings Photos @ Gamertell] Site [Gamertell @ E3 2010] Site [Hustle Kings (UK)]