ASTA-POOL: The Future of Pool

Wow! The latest update is fantastic! It added so much to the story and new gameplay. Very original! Love it!

Really enjoyed the game, and especially the variety of minigames it offered! I am someone who enjoys challenge so the harder minigames were really enjoyable for me. Another thing i really enjoyed was the art style. It stood out to me and each character's design was also really nice! I also liked the visual novel-esque story telling approach as well as its pacing, I think its fair to say that I enjoyed the story a lot. Now, for the improvements, first thing I have to mention is the instructions of each game. I think they could be made more presentable, visually engaging and especially concise (especially concise, they are huge texts that some people find it hard to read, it is a huge point accessibility wise too, for dyslexic people). I think it would be helpful to have a tooltip or info/help button during gameplay in case a player forgets or wants to revise. In addition to that, I am also someone who plays games mainly with a controller, so controller support would definitely be welcome addition (though it might require some heavy rework maybe as this game is mainly mouse operated). Overall I enjoyed the game's structure and minigames design, and i was positively surprised by each game bringing in all new mechanics! I’m someone who’s quite selective, so it's fair to say i fairly enjoyed this!

I was a beta-tester for Asta-Pool before it's release, and while I was paid to test the game, I was not paid to write this review. Here's my review of the game so you can decide whether it's worth your money! DISCLAIMER: This review was written for an older version of Asta-Pool. Currently, the March 2026 version of Asta-Pool supports online multiplayer, and the game stories have been improved since the prior version! Also, I have edited my comment about the price of the game. Asta-Pool is a story-focused game following Lieutenant Jerry "J.J." Johnson during his visit to the robot-centric Asta-Pool Club. Rather than being a casual date night with his girlfriend, Cisco, J.J. will have to prove his skills in pool matches - can he defeat his robot adversary? You take the helm as J.J. himself, learning how to play pool, and then using that knowledge to ace new and inventive pool game modes. These modes include the hectic Scramble, where both players shoot simultaneously, the classic throwback Sloppy 8 (basically regular pool), and my personal favorite, Freeze Ball, where freezing the opponent's pool balls is the goal and they can unfreeze them just as easily. Every level is a new game mode, a new challenge - and more often than not, a new progression of the story. The cast consists of four recurring characters: Lieutenant J.J., his girlfriend Cisco, a robot referee and a salty fish-bot. Yes, you read that one right, but that's not a bad thing - he's memorable, I'll say that much. While the main cast is small, each character has a clearly distinct personality, and the interactions between characters actually evolve as the story progresses. Watching the characters interact in between every few levels was a very nice reward for me during my playthrough of the game! The icing on the cake is that the game is very much family-friendly - J.J.'s girlfriend Cisco does show him some affection, but nothing explicit, and forget gore - the game isn't violent in the slightest. One character is a poor sport at times, but this behavior is not encouraged by the others. Games don't have to be dark or push maturity ratings to be fun, and Asta-Pool understands that. The story and multiplayer games are positive and wholesome for you and your children to enjoy! To top it all off, the game features local multiplayer to play with friends on the same computer. It's not true splitscreen because everyone uses the same screen, but you and your friends share the same computer. While the game does not support true online multiplayer, there is one option left - the game does support Remote Play, so as long as Player 2 uses a controller plugged into their computer, and you set up a player character for them on the host's side, you can technically play online with a friend. I personally enjoyed playing the campaign and it's story - while most game franchises I tend to play are action-packed fighting games, I still found the story engaging, the mechanics quite fun and the main characters memorable even after I finished the story. I rate this game a 9 out of 10, and if you like pool, story games and a family-friendly experience, I'd recommend trying Asta-Pool. At the very least, wishlist the game for later!

Definitely not a regular pool game. Astapool is basically made up of a TON of different puzzle games or timed games, which made the experience really interesting bcoz I didn't know what I was gonna play next 😂 Surprisingly it only had one or two original pool games, which is still good in case you prefer the classics. Honestly the racing games were my favorite. 💕 But if I'm being totally honest, my favorite part is the storyline 😂😂 there's at least one clip after every single level. I have this love-hate relationship with Junkbot... Anyways anyways. Great game, guys. 😂

Sorry this review is a little scuffed/rough because I just wanted to go ahead and leave [i]a[/i] positive review. I played this game at MomoCon and bought it right there. There was a lot to see in the build they had at the con that falls short of explaining the full-depth of game that you get to experience in the full game. An example is that I was unaware of the story and voice-acting which was a nice surprise. I haven't gotten much into it yet, but I am expecting much more.

definitely not a typical pool game. the concept of artificial beings along with human in a pool game is very interesting. i did not expect the music to be this good. Overall its a good game with nice graphics. the storyline is also relatable in a sense with a myriad of pool games notably the driving cue ball. only difficulties i faced was when the game was not full screen the mouse was very hard to move around in order to get it full screen or even play. I suggest that the F key be enabled to be used to full screen. there is no exit button while playing a game in case someone has to leave. all in all a good and recommendable game

I'm posting this review strictly from the gameplay perspective as I skipped through the cutscenes. Every level has a different minigame with completely different mechanics which is the allure of this game but it lead to incoherent gameplay. As all minigames have different mechancis, every player will have different experience with every level. Some levels are very easy for me to play and easy to get through, but others are very very dragged out. As soon as you start to enjoy one of the levels, it's over and never seen again. Maybe I'd enjoy it a lot more, if I had gone through the story bits as well. It is clear how much effort has been put into the game though, and its definitely unique and it wasn't insanely painful to play through, but definitely needs polish.

Enjoyed the game! Even on lvl 3 Serious Mode, it felt challenging and fair. (eventually i'll finish the story on Hustler mode). I played the store twice, first time choosing "turn based" and second time choosing "action based". Definitely prefer turn based games, tho the levels are set up fairly for each. Right now, (and I know production is indie), the only ding is I cannot find the music anywhere publicly. I would love if eventually an Asta-Pool soundtrack album can get released online for streaming (i.e YTMusic). Edit: Checked Credits. I can see now, a soundtrack album would be quite difficult to Impossible based on how they've selected their music. Disclaimer: Demo-ed and purchased game at Momocon 2026, receiving game on discount.

The game, or well the actual minigames are varying and overall very fun, especially the live gameplay ones (like the raceball). However, I found the story to be a bit bland for my taste, but I really loved the art style. It is full of life. The online play was buggy and kept kicking me out, I would've loved to keep playing this game for rounds with my friends, but in its current state, the online play is too annoying. The game also gave me an error: "Win32 function failed: HRESULT: Ox887a0005" anytime i minimized the game from fullscreen. Overall, I would say it's a good game for its charm and the varying minigames inside it, but it needs quite a bit of polish still!

Decent game overall, but the story didn't land for me as far as i played. Levels are engaging. Online play seems to be really buggy and kept kicking us out. Minimizing the game crashes it. Also encountered a bug where the ball got teleported outside of the pool and had to restart the whole level because of it. It is not something I would sit and play for long sessions but I'm sure it would be really fun if the online play worked. There's a lot of polishes that can be done here and I will check the game back with more updates.