They do play great, but do take a bit more work to move around. The collisions seem less bouncy than with other sets, like they are less elastic. I've told this before, but when a friend of mine bough those sets years ago when we would have regular partner gambling sets, no-one would gamble with us if he brought out those balls to use because they could not move the cueball as easily.
Not sure why companies keep messing with the designs, it's not like there is some demand from players that we all want the colors to change or make the numbers some cryptic designs.