Mafia Billiard Tricks Game Review

Mafia Billiard Tricks Game Background

Mafia Billiard Tricks is an 8-ball pool and billiard trick shot game inspired by mafia fiction like Mario Puzo’s The Godfather. As a young pool player from the rough and tumble city streets, impress The Family with your billiard skills until you can face off against the Don himself.

The game was developed by Ravalmatic.

How to Play Mafia Billiard Tricks

To select, left click with your mouse or tap on the touchscreen with your fingers.

When you’re playing for the first time, you begin with a cutscene explaining the name and motivations of your player character, Gino “Pooly” Pullano, who wants to impress the mafia brass by talking to the mobster Cousin Vinnie. Each part of the tutorial has a cutscene, though you can move past these by selecting Skip on the top right corner of the screen.

On a desktop, use your mouse cursor to set the angle trajectory of the cue ball. Left click and drag to set the force of your strike, then release to hit the cue ball.

The game works slightly differently on a touchscreen. To aim your shot, tap on the screen with your fingers and move it as you would with a mouse. Release, then tap on the meter on the left side of the screen to increase or decrease the force of your strike. Release to hit the ball.

A set of lines appear as you aim to show you where your ball will go when you hit it.

The spin button on the top right corner lets you change how the ball behaves when struck. Change the position of the dot to change where your cue stick strikes the ball.

Basic Gameplay Advice

Basic Rules of 8-Ball Pool

The goal in 8-ball pool is to be the first player to pocket the balls of your group. This will give you the opportunity to pocket the 8 ball. Each player is assigned a group: solids and stripes. Pocket the balls one by one by hitting them with the white cue ball. You must only pocket the balls of your group. The player who pockets the 8-ball wins the entire game.

Determining solids and stripes is straightforward. On the opening moves, it is decided by the first ball the player pockets. If you pocket a striped ball, your opponent gets the solid balls, and vice versa.

The starting turns alternate between levels. On the first level, you have the opening move. On the second, your opponent does, and so on. When you fail to pocket, your opponent earns a turn. When you pocket a ball, you earn an extra turn. You can, in fact, win an entire round by pocketing a ball each time.

Once you or your opponent have pocketed all your balls, you have a chance at pocketing the 8 ball. If you fail to do this, your opponent gains a turn. You will not get another chance at the 8 ball until they lose a turn.

Receiving a foul can cost you dearly in this game. There are 5 types of fouls in this game:

• You hit a ball that didn’t belong to you with the cue ball.
• You hit the 8 ball with the cue ball.
• You pocket the cue ball.
• You pocket an opposing player’s balls.
• You pocket the 8 ball outside the end game.

The first 3 conditions will simply let the opposing player move their balls. The fourth lets your opponent remove the ball you pocketed and one more ball. Pocket the 8 ball early and you lose the game.

Ball Spinning

Spinning refers to the changes in the balls behavior wherever your cue strikes the ball. Having the cue stick strike different parts of the ball (indicated by the position of the dot) will alter its behavior. These can be divided into 3 basic types:

• Following: This is when the stick hits the top part of the cue ball. When done, the cue ball continues to move after hitting another ball.
• Drawing: This is where the stick hits the bottom part of the cue ball. This creates a ricochet effect that brings the ball back toward the stick’s original direction.
• English: This involves the stick hitting either side of the ball. This will cause the ball to deflect to one side.

Spinning the ball is essential to accomplishing many of the more complex shots required by the game.

Levels & Challenges

The game has 8 levels of increasing difficulty themed after a different mafioso. Each mafioso presents a different set of challenges for Pooly. Levels are unlocked sequentially; you can replay any of them if you need a refresher course.

These levels consist of 3 standard challenges and a few unique to the level. In these challenges, you can pocket the cue ball without penalty. If the cue ball enters one pocket, it emerges from another. Indeed, because of this mechanism, it may in fact be crucial to pocket the cue ball in some of the challenges.

There are 3 types of standard challenges.

• Pocket all the balls within a specific number of shoots. You will lose if you overshoot. The number of shots it takes to finish the challenge has a corresponding star value. To earn the highest star value, you must finish the game in the fewest possible shots as shown on the top right corner of the screen.
• Pocket all the balls as quickly as possible. You have 120 seconds to pocket all the balls in the table.
• Play an game of 8-ball pool against a mobster. Your mobster mentor will only challenge you if you finish all the challenges. This is the only time where pocketing the cue is a penalty.

Beating the mobster in the last challenge is the key to progressing in this game.

The level-specific challenges are themed after the specific lesson taught by each mafioso. Mastering each of the skills taught is the key to earning 3 stars on all the levels. Skill and speed are crucial to level-specific challenges as they are themselves often timed.

Advanced Playing Tips & Strategy

Billiards is about a balance of power and finesse. Temper the strength of each of your shots so they have just the right strength for the job. Often, the gentle touch is all that’s needed to get the ball to where it’s supposed to go. In addition, tempering your shot strength can help control the trajectory of the ball, which goes a long way in avoiding fouls that come from the cue hitting balls that aren’t yours.

In the challenges, it pays to think outside the box. The way the pockets behave will open up new opportunities for you to hit balls from unexpected angles.

Experiment further by spinning the ball. This will help you make trickier shots more doable in both the standard games and the other challenges.

Educational Aspects

The game hones a player’s aiming skills and encourages the use of tempered force to get results. Players must push the cue ball with the right force at the right spot to get the desired results.

Player Age Recommendations

The game focused primarily on playing pool. However, due its references to mafia fiction and violence, this game may not be suited for younger players. We instead recommend it for teenage players and above who enjoy 8-ball pool.