When I was five years old I was at a pizza place with my family and I asked my dad what "pool" was and if I could play. He told me that he didn't want me to play, and something to the affect of "it's for grownups." I held onto this kind of mystique about billiards and the overall atmosphere of the game itself for years after, and I only ended up playing my actual first game of pool at a summer camp when I was in high school. After that, some friends and I would very casually play billiards in my friend's basement every so often. I was never any good, but there's something very special about the iconic sound of the billiards hitting each other and sinking into the pockets.

Side Pocket nails atmosphere and brings me right back to that pizza place when I was five, complete with a small animation of a woman wearing a pearl necklace smiling at you after every level and a pair of floating lips next to the words "Side Pocket" making me think that maybe my dad was right about pool being a game for adults. However, it's stinky to actually play, and there are better billiards video games out there nowadays.

Anyway I'm pretty sure the reason my dad didn't want me playing pool was either because my arms and legs were too short and I wouldn't have the hand-eye coordination to successfully play, or because he didn't want me goofing off and whacking anyone with the pool cue, which is absolutely in my character to do.