8 Ball Pool™

8 Ball Pool™ is the clearest version of online pool: line up shots, judge angles, and try not to snooker yourself on the next turn. By our assessment, its strength is the clean translation of a pub game into a quick digital format, where the rules are instantly familiar and the matches can stay short. The downside is that pool, even online, can be unforgiving; one careless shot can flip the whole table, and there is not much room to hide behind spectacle. In practice it feels sharp and matter-of-fact, with skill in cue control doing most of the talking. It sits at the top end of simple pool games because it knows exactly what it is and does not pad the table with extra noise. The name says it plainly, and the game does too.