Welcome to VC Weekly, N-Europe's guide to the wonderful world of Nintendo's download service. Written by Sam C Gittins.

If you have a passing interest in table-top based sports then you may be interested in this release though quite frankly it's more of an insult to what it attempts to imitate. Anyway enough from me and on with the game!

Available for download this week we have...

• Side Pocket

Price: GB �2.70 EU �3
Publisher: G-mode
Developer: Data East
Released: 1990
System: GameBoy

Pool can be a rather fun game when it's played in the real world but when it comes to virtual versions of the casual sport these can be - quite literally - a bit hit and miss, there is probably no better example of just how badly it can translate than Side Pocket though. In fairness this may have seemed a credible title over two decades ago but only barely so it's no real surprise that this particular game hasn't just aged badly, it's actually barely playable.

From a game that's based on Pool you would expect it to at the very least have physics which go some way towards representing how the balls would move in reality but here they seem to defy all logic. It's absolutely awful having to watch a cue ball slammed at full power stop dead upon impact against the pack of numbered balls as they jitter unconvincingly across the table before eventually coming to a stop way off where they perhaps should have stopped aside from in the pockets.

Worse still is that while there are actual balls on the table you're actually more likely to be opting for numbers representing the balls rather than the familiar coloured spherical objects due to the GameBoy only being able to render in monochrome as opposed to full colour which makes replicating a game like this on it a challenge to say the least but in truth it's a wonder that they actually bothered. The music is vaguely entertaining and is probably the only thing that adds any value to this title which makes it hardly worth bothering with as it's hardly anything to boast about; worse still is that the game has tournament modes - only playable against the cpu as there is no two-player support - each of which is just about as uninspiring as the last which put the final nail into the already well-secured coffin.

Quite simply there is little to no point in wasting precious cash on this title as for what it costs you could actually buy a good few rounds at a real Pool table and probably actually enjoy it which is more than can be said for this offensive offering.

Verdict : The most pathetic portable pool you're ever likely to play.

That's it for another installment of VC Weekly which will return again soon. So until then, enjoy the rest of the week and Game On!

Sam Gittins
[email protected]