 S-M-S drank One of the really cool things about how the gaming industry has evolved over the years is that we're now at the point where gaming is a family thing parents play video games with their kids all the time now but in the 80s and 90s when I was growing up, that was not the case my dad had zero interest in anything gaming related my mom to her credit did give it the old college try by getting family feud for SNES she played it like twice But there were still other parents I knew of that played video games, sort of, barely. One other family on our block had a Super Nintendo. I remember they had a few good games, but the dad only played Pebble Beach True Golf Classics. My friend's dad had a Game Boy, but he only had Tetris and Golf. He said that was all he needed because he only played Game Boy when he was on the toilet. And that brings me to Side Pocket, which was just added to the Nintendo Switch Online service about a week ago. Side Pocket is a dad game. It's pool. That's all it is. And we might be in a bit of trouble if Nintendo was already down to adding dad games to their online service. Next, we're gonna see stuff like Super Caesar's Palace on there. So, let's go over the game itself. In case you're interested, you started up and immediately you're greeted by one of the women from Wilson Phillips. Gotta hold on one more day for those giant hoop earrings, I guess. There's a few different game modes. The single-player campaign has you earning points with each ball you pocket, and you have to pass a certain points threshold to advance to the next table. You earn points by pocketing balls either in order by number, or just consecutively, regardless of the number. You can see which number is which by pressing the Y button. There's also a two-player pocket game. It goes five rounds, and the player with the most points wins, although if you miss three shots in a row at any point, you lose. There's a two-player and nine-ball game where you can go best of three, best of seven, or best of fifteen. Bear in mind, however, in nine-ball, you gotta hit the lower numbered ball that's still on the table before hitting any other ball. And there's also a trick shot mode, which I actually kind of appreciate because it functions as a reward for spending time with this game. There's 19 different trick shot scenarios, but in order to consider a shot completed, you have to pocket every ball on the table in one shot. The controls are very simple. The B button regulates the power of your shot, and you can change the spin with the Y button while using the D pad to move your cue placement around. You can also use the L and R buttons to fine-tune your aim, which is nice. And you can even pop up the cue ball if you need to get around another ball in your way. And, uh, yeah, that's pretty much the game. I will say at least this game does have some pretty chill music, which I really appreciate. I should mention that Side Pocket was originally an arcade game made by Data East all the way back in 1986. It got ports to the NES and Game Boy before getting a bit of a facelift when it was released for Sega Genesis, Game Gear, and Super Nintendo. And for what it's worth, it also received a Wonderswan port, so hooray for that. But yeah, that's all there really is to say about this one. Side Pocket is a total dad game. I'm willing to bet that if you somehow owned this cartridge as a kid, your dad or parent or guardian or whoever would play this like twice a year for a combined 20 minutes while the rest of the time it's sat there gathering dust. That doesn't mean it's a bad game. The physics here are actually pretty good and reliably consistent. And they did get the music right, which is absolutely crucial in games like this. But ultimately, you're playing pool on a 16-bit system. So, if you're into that, then here you go. Alright, I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.