I ‘m not much of an action gamer at all, but I ‘m a sucker for a good sports game, or in this case borderline sports / leisure game, or whichever slot bowling falls into as an activity. I like bowling “ don ‘t do it very often at all, but whenever a group of us have a go, it ‘s always a good time.
So bowling on the iPhone sounded worth a go, and I spotted Ten Pin Championship Bowling recently and thought I ‘d give it a crack. I ‘m glad I did.
I ‘m a big fan of games (and apps in general) that are simple and intuitive to use. Ten Pin Championship Bowling fits the bill nicely. If you have ever been bowling, or have just seen it and understand the concept of throwing a large ball at a bunch of wobbly pins, then this game will be a cinch to play.
When you start it up, you can choose which mode of game to play “ Classic or Strikes-in-a-Row “ or tap to view the High Scores area or Trophy Room.
To be honest, I ‘d never even looked at the Trophy Room before sitting down to write this today
but it ‘s good to see that I am DOMINATING it “ although I should perhaps mention that nobody else has played the game on my iPhone. 🙂
I have occasionally taken a moment to admire my (probably not very impressive) High Scores efforts
I have tried out the Strikes-in-a-Row mode a handful of times, but I ‘m just not a good enough bowler (here or in real life) to get too into that.
What I do a lot of “ a whole lot of “ is just play the Classic mode of the game. In this mode (and in the Strikes mode as well) you simply select your preferred alley (among two offered), choose a player name (or add up to 4), pick your ball color and weight, and away you go.
The gameplay is very good. The bowling action “ for me anyway “ feels very intuitive and natural. You just place your finger on the bowling ball and slide it down the line in the sort of direction that will cause all those pins to go flying.
As in the real game, it ‘s a bit more challenging when you ‘ve got just a few pins to go for after a first throw, or when the pins are split.
The game ‘s sounds and graphics are not tremendously flashy, but they seem plenty good enough and in keeping with the feel of a bowling alley environment. I especially like one background sound effect where an alley staff member comes over the PA to warn that anyone putting wooden nickels in the jukebox will be ‘prosecuted to the full extent of the law ‘.
As you finish each frame, you ‘re shown the scoreboard “ to keep up with how much of a bowling star you are. 🙂
At the end of a game, you ‘re also told of any new milestones you ‘ve reached
One thing that would be fun to see added to the game is a head-to-head online mode. As is though, this is a fine game if you like bowling even a bit.
In fact, it ‘s one of those games I ‘ve found surprisingly compelling. I return to it at least once a day, and because I ‘m not much of an ace at it, I ‘ve always got the ‘try to set a new high score ‘ incentive.
You can find Ten Pin Championship Bowling in the App Store now, priced at just $0.99.
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