Strike Force Bowling Review

Developer	Lab Rats
Publisher	Crave
Genre	Sports

If you’re a fan of bowling, you likely fall into one of two categories. You either love the professional side of the sport, or you don’t. If you don’t you likely prefer the laid back comfort of just hitting your local alley for some fun with some friends or family, or maybe you dig the nighttime glow bowling, complete with neon lighting and loud music. The sounds, the people, and the smell make up the atmosphere that may give you fond memories of days gone by.

Not since Ten Pin Alley on PSone has there been a videogame based on the fun side of bowling. Strike Force Bowling attempts to fill that niche, and not only does it do a decent job of it, but its low $15 price tag means there’s no excuse for you not to pick up this little keggling gem if you like the subject matter.

Gameplay -Strike Force isn’t anything fancy, nor does it attempt or claim to be. It’s simply bowling. No leagues, just bowling. There is one main twist on how the game is played, which is the inclusion of a bunch of crazy locales, ranging from the deck of a pirate ship to an abandoned old western ghost town. The locales are for show more than anything else because, aside from the pirate vessel, which simply rocks back and forth, none of the exotically-themed lanes affect gameplay. There are different bowlers and lanes to unlock by meeting certain objectives as well, which creates quite a challenge for players interested in seeing it all. There are lots of lanes in which to choose, but the roster of characters is unimpressive. Furthermore, the characters aren’t tailored after the folk you’d normally find at a bowling alley, but instead are simply generic people, each from a different country. Like the game’s locales, you are able to unlock a few bowlers too, such as a robot, alien, or skeleton, but really, this just helps to offset the lameness of the initial character roster. Your bowling balls are accurate representations (resin, urethane) to the downright abnormal (cannon ball, pumpkin).

What Strike Force Bowling lacks in personality though is somewhat made up in the actual bowling. It’s simple to pick up and play, and yet mastering the sport is as tough as ever. The ball and pin physics model is very accurate, and the controls are simplistic enough for anyone to pick up and get the hang of easily, utilizing the three-click system used in many golf games. Lab Rats does try to mix things up a bit with the various modes of play, which admittedly are entertaining in their own ways. For example, there is Golf Mode, which is where each player tries to knock down as many of the differently-set up pins as they can in as few ball rolls as possible. Striking out is scored as a hole-in-one, and “holes” that are par 3’s require you to knock down all the pins within three ball rolls. Any more than that, you bogey, giving you a positive score (which is bad in Golf).

Practice Mode is pretty straightforward, though it allows you to set up the pins the way you want. So practicing picking up the 7-10 split is as easy as settings the pins up that way. Skins Mode challenges the player to strike twice in a row as many times as possible, accumulating money as you go. Winning the match against the computer or other players will reward you with what you earned so you can purchase some of the game’s unlockables. Challenge Mode gives you a series of challenges and dares you to defeat them, and finally, there are Tournaments, which are elimination rounds and Open Play, where you simply bowl to your heart’s content, either against the computer, or with up to three other players. Both the PS2 and Xbox versions play identically, but the Xbox version is Live Aware, so signing in to see who is online, etc. is very easy and useful.

Graphics – Visually, Strike Force isn’t impressive, but it’s competent. The backgrounds are nicely drawn, whether it’s that of a local bowl-a-rama, a tropical island, an Asian garden, or under the watchful eye of a giant sphinx. The bowler models didn’t turn out so hot though. Their limbs are as thin as pencils, and their animations are very clunky. All of the game’s characters animate the exact same way, and they all share the same celebration animations. Little details, like the reflections cast off the bowling balls and lanes, look great, but there isn’t that much pizzazz to go around. The game’s camera could be more useful, offering some better angles. There are times when you don’t know how accurate your shot is because the game’s camera doesn’t allow you a decent view.

Sound – Getting a bowling game’s audio right isn’t hard. As long as you include the obvious sounds of crashing pins on adjacent lanes and lounge music, the bowling alley ambience is pretty much nailed. Strike Force is pretty successful, though it’d have been nice to have a rotating soundtrack for each lane, or at least the alley-themed lanes. Each locale has one song that loops over and over again, becoming rather tedious after awhile. Sadly, all of the game’s characters are mute.

Bottom Line - At just $15, you can’t expect much, but with Strike Force Bowling, you get your money’s worth, and some. It’s not the next Ten Pin Alley, but the game is enjoyable and will likely entertain anyone with a passing interest in bowling. The wacky locales, characters, bowling balls, and game modes put an interesting spin on the sport, even if it isn’t integral to the gameplay. If you like bowling, go ahead and pick it up. Scrounging up $15 shouldn’t be too hard.

Review by Brendon "The Hung" Hivner