The Hustle: Detroit Streets PSP Review

The Hustle: Detroit Streets is a story of a guy who had it all; he was the best pool player around. Everyone saw him as the best! As he was leaving town to get away from it all before he got deeper than he could ever imagine, he could not resist one last game. In a back alley there were some underground pool players, and he thought he could get one last hustle to make that little bit more. He was wrong! Just before he was about to play he got jumped, and they took everything he had. He was angry and wanted to get back and be better than he was before. . .

In this game, a lot of people would see it as just your basic pool game with a lame storyline. Now, the story isn’t that great. It’s been done a million times before. Hero has everything, loses everything, and gains it back through power and respect. Snore! But if they didn’t have the story it would be worse because games that try and make a story out of something as basic as pool is boring. But at least they are trying!

With this game you look at the cover art and the screenshots and you would think its Def Jam Vendetta with pool. The graphical style is done very similar: seedy underground scene; vicious and mean opponents. The characters in the game start out looking scruffy and mean, then they get more clean-cut, but just as mean. Mafia-types if you will. You see them and you know not to mess with them, but you have to just to get that step further. The actual graphics on the table and balls are highly detailed. It looks really nice. Everything is really polished and smooth.

The game play in this is extremely deep. Before you start it asks you play a quick tutorial, which is highly recommended if you want to make the best shots you can! The tutorial takes around 20-30minutes, but it is well worth the time. It explains a lot in terms of shots. Like changing where you hit the ball, which is called English. You can change the angle of where you hit the ball, set it to a certain degrees so you can chip it over a ball to get to another one. Pay close attention to the tutorial and you will be making shots like John Virgo on the famous UK show Big Break.

With the single player game, you start off at the dirt bottom. People think you’re scum, and you’re out to prove them wrong! From the seedy underground bars you slowly move up to private pool-bars. Before moving on and up in the world you need to beat 5 people before you take on the big balls of the joint your in. Before choosing your next victim, you decide whether you wish to raise the stakes by making high bets on the game. The harder the opponent the more money you can bet. The easier, they won’t make such risky bets. While playing the game, you have a respect bar and an intimidation bar. This affects how easy or hard your shots are. If your intimidation bar is very high, making an accurate shot is very hard. If you manage to make a really good shot, your respect bar goes up and it gets a little easier. Each character has their own intimidation and respect for you. You just have to take risky shots even if you don’t think you will make them.

The multi-player aspect of this is basic one on one pool. It is played only offline with another friend, so no online multi-player disappointingly. If you and your friends like a bit of pool, and can’t be bothered to go down to the pub, whip your PSP on and get playing! They have also added a customising character mode so you and your friends don’t look the same. While it’s just your basic, change jacket and trousers scenario, it’s still a nice little feature. You unlock more clothes for you to change into as you play the single player game. There is quite a lot to unlock as well, so if you love getting 100% on games this one is good because it will last a long time!

The music in this is quite cool – it has some funky jazz club style tracks to it. Stuff that makes you want to go into a smoky room, put on your sunglasses, and smoke a cigar. That is how cool it really is! In some ways it gets you into the mood to play pool as well. Maybe subliminal advertising to get you right in the moment!

Overall the game is ace for people who are a fan of this sport; they can get their teeth sunk right into it. For people who aren’t will find it a little difficult at first, but they will get there eventually. One really bad thing is that it has taken over a year to hit the UK so a lot of people will have imported if they read import reviews. It is a refreshing change from your run of the mill football and re-releases on the PSP.

This is one style of game not looked into enough, but they have hit the nail on the head with this.

8.6 out of 10