VideogameVagabond.com

Someone quite naughty thought up the latest PSP billiards game, Pocket Pool. The idea is fairly simple: spice up a deep billiards sim by offering plenty of scantily clad gals into the mix, including some unlockable naughty pictures and videos of said women. It’s called Pocket Pool and if you went to grade school in the 1970s, there was a fairly crude reference for that turn of phrase: it’s employed intentionally here.

While the models are quite fetching, what all the “bra and panties” action may distract one from is the fairly obvious conclusion that Pocket Pool actually offers up a fairly substantial billiards sim with plenty of depth, decent table physics and load times that thankfully aren’t as bad as many PSP titles.

Offering a more festive tone than The Hustle: Detroit Streets, Pocket Pool should appeal to more than just folks of prurient gaming interests. It’s a decent billiards game and stands toe-to-toe with the aging The Hustle: Detroit Streets as a fun pool game for PSP.

But if this “dames and sports” trend continues, instead of a fresh Callaway golf title on PSP, we may be faced with the likes of Hot Shots Golf: Going Commando! Yikes!

While in some ways it may be old-school to a fault, the forthcoming Dungeon Maker: Hunting Grounds from XSeed Games is looking just fine. The game combines the appeal of the “build your own RPG” type games that were somewhat appealing on PSone and PS2, but without the need to, like, do everything from the ground up.

Instead of building EVERY aspect of an RPG, Dungeon Maker: Hunting Ground offers up a frame story and a cast of characters to interact with, while challenging the gamer to design their own ultimate dungeon to not only explore and conquer, but to create as well.

You must purchase everything from basic building blocks like hallway and room segments to the design and decor of each area. You can even purchase an energy supplement to refresh your character and keep him hacking his way through your dungeon as you both explore it and build it out and down.

New building elements are spaced apart in their availability to keep the game interesting as you go, and while the game is rather narrow in scope compared to sweeping epics like Final Fantasy XII or Dragon Quest VII, it still comes across quite well for the scale of the game.

The main goal is to build the dungeon deep enough and interestingly enough to really draw in major monsters that award you more funds to keep building and building and building, like Lady Winchester in the Winchester mansion, until finally you capture the attention of the game’s Big Bad Boss, the final encounter that helps you ultimately win the game.

You’ll encounter various characters along the way who give you advice and side-quests to complete, and generally the game is action-RPG-style fun that will entertain without bogging you down too much in a morose and lengthy storyline.

The game looks promising at this point. We’re certainly anticipating seeing how the final product looks when the code goes gold and is released on store shelves later this month.