• $15

• Small size (under 150k)
• Lots of options
• Beautiful graphics

• Unnatural default ball movement

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Game Play
The theme of 9-ball is billiards. The idea is to hit targets representing pool balls so you can collect points and get bonus time. In easy mode, you can hit the targets in any order, but pool shark mode is a greater challenge requiring you to hit all nine targets in numerical order. Both play modes are equally fun, but I think the more experienced gamer will enjoy the challenge of pool shark more.

After hitting all nine targets, you get bonus time. The time is a brief 30 seconds at first, but every time you complete a rack you get another 30 seconds added to the time. During bonus time, the point value of every target doubles, and if you hit all nine targets in that time frame you get an extra ball.

9-ball offers you the ability to custom set up options to define the difficulty of the game. The ability to chose things like number of balls, gravity, and speed allows you to customize the program to any player. The default settings are pretty bad, but with a little tweaking you can make the game much more realistic. There's also an option for multi-player mode for up to five people.

There's a lot of ways to get high scores through this game. Completing a rack helps, so does hitting the bonus multipliers along the left side. After hitting all of the multipliers, there's a thing you can hit allowing you "special" things. You could get 20,000 points, light up the kick-backs, or even get an extra ball!

Graphics
One of the coolest thing about the new version of 9-ball is the graphics. LandWare has done an amazing job spicing up the game with a new skin. The old version had a lot of black and white in it, but this new release is simply amazing.

The color implementation starts with the background which is a textured green representing a pool table. There was also the addition of woodgrain to the table instead of just black borders. The bumpers and flippers were livened up with a touch of color as were the nine targets and even the ball itself. All in all, these full screen graphics are a great way to either enjoy the color capabilities on a Palm, or show them off to another user.

Conclusion
The new graphics create an amazing first impression, but the quality of ball movement is really lacking without a certain amount of fiddling. An upgrade is free for registered users, and only $5 for owners of the Palm Games card. But at nearly $15 for the full version, you should take your time pulling out your wallet and give the game a try for yourself.