Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first few minutes make Pub Games’ intentions very clear: this is a keyboard-sharing contest built around familiar pub-table pastimes, not a painstaking simulation of any one of them. Set up two names, choose the full run or practice, and you are quickly taking turns with darts, billiards, dominoes, cards, skittles, and a burst of table football. That variety is its main strength. A weak result in one event does not sink the night, and the next game arrives before the previous one has had too much time to overstay its welcome.

The full run is the mode worth trying first. Each conventional event win earns £1, while Pontoon and Poker add their final kitty to the total, so the overall lead can change dramatically late on. That gives the compilation a real competitive rhythm: steady wins matter, but a strong gambling round can rescue somebody who has been losing at the more skill-driven games. A roughly two-hour commitment is substantial for such lightweight events, yet it makes the final money total feel more meaningful than a disconnected menu of minigames.

Not every event lands equally well. Darts and Skittles lean on moving cursors and precise timing, which can produce satisfying last-second hits but also the kind of near miss that feels more irritating than deserved. Bar Billiards asks you to position the cue ball, cue, and power carefully, with fouls wiping out a break, giving it more tension than its simple goal suggests. Table Football is the standout for immediate rivalry because both people play simultaneously and the active line is determined by proximity to the ball. Practice mode is invaluable once you know where your favourites are.

The card games are the wild cards. Pontoon lets you manage a £10 stake across ten hands, choosing bets and whether to twist, stick, or buy; Poker turns on deciding which cards to reject and whether to redraw the whole hand. They are not head-to-head in the same direct way as darts or skittles, but their payouts can make everyone watch closely. Dominoes is quieter, with each side revealing and placing tiles in turn, and works best when you enjoy the slower tactical pause between the frantic timing games.

Graphics

Pub Games keeps its visuals functional and event-specific. The darts screen offers a choice of board colours and includes a small animation of a man throwing after each shot. Skittles shows the lane, six pins, the moving ball position, and a separate moving target, so you can see why lining up a clean knockdown is difficult.

Story

There is no conventional plot here. The closest thing to a story is the full pub-games run itself: two competitors work through a long evening of events, collecting winnings and trying to finish with the most money.

That modest framing does more work than it first appears. A darts win is only £1, but it becomes part of an accumulating rivalry, and a late Pontoon or Poker kitty can rewrite the result. You are not chasing a character arc; you are chasing bragging rights.

The package also has a distinctly youthful fantasy of adult pub culture, presenting these games as a peek into smoke-filled drinking establishments while keeping the action at the table. It is a thin theme, admittedly, but it gives the assortment more personality than an anonymous sports-and-cards compilation.

Overall Experience

Pub Games is an uneven but likable multiplayer time capsule. Its rules are generally easy to grasp, and the full-run scoring turns a pile of small games into a proper contest. Get a second person involved and there is a reliable cycle of concentration, laughter at bad luck, and demands for a rematch.

Go in knowing that its best moments come from competition rather than depth. The cursor-based aiming in Darts and Skittles can frustrate, and the slower turn-taking games will not carry an entire session on their own. The compilation needs that changing pace: one round of cards can make the next physical-timing event feel fresh again.

Give it a chance if you enjoy taking turns at compact, old-school competitive games and can appreciate a long-form score chase. Play the full run once for the structure, then use practice mode to settle into Table Football, Bar Billiards, or whichever game starts provoking the loudest arguments. Alone, it is a modest curiosity; with a willing opponent, it earns its pub-table charm.

Retro Replay Score

6.1/10