Strike Force Bowling
If you like bowling and don’t have a lot of money, SFB could scratch your itch.
Tags: Strike Force Bowling Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Aug 9th, 2004
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Strike Force Bowling (title page) | 1-4 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Sports | No | ||
Bowling as a sport is often seen as blue-collar and is the object of derision – want proof? See the movie KINGPINS. But it actually is a sport that can translate quite well to videogames and attempts to do so date back to the ATARI 2600.
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The latest attempt, by Crave Games, is Strike Force Bowling, a bargain title that delivers enough to make it worth the $15-$20 they’re asking; but not a lot more. Crave Games tries to make their title appealing by going for variety; many of your opponents in one-player mode are space aliens, skeletons and other nontraditional bowlers. And in addition to a standard bowling alley, there are a wide assortment of nontraditional “bowling alleys,” all with challenges unique to their setting.
For example, if standard alley bowling is a bit boring for you, one alternative setting is the deck of a pirate ship. The back-and-forth swaying of the open-sea vessel provides unique timing and physics challenges. In all, a dozen or so settings are provided, some of which have to be unlocked to access them.
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This would all be well and good, except that in one-player mode, your CPU opponents play pretty flawlessly as you’re just learning the physics of these new settings even on the easiest setting, which makes for a lot of getting your butt kicked. That could discourage younger gamers.
Six gameplay modes make an attempt at adding depth. In addition to standard bowling mode and offline multi-tap 2-, 3- or 4-player gaming, there are skins, challenge, golf, practice, open and tournament play. The most glaring omission, in a title where its addition should be a no-brainer, is the lack of online multiplayer options.
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Also, conceptually, it just seems like Strike Force Bowling tries so hard to be creative and different, that the actual in-a-bowling-alley experience pretty much gets pushed to the side. Human opponents and an actual bowling alley atmosphere, a variety of real-life alleys of varying quality and real-life bowling options such as after-dark, glow-in-the-dark bowling, are all things that get completely overlooked by Strike Force Bowling, which tends to relegate the title’s appeal to the younger crowd; that’d be all well and good, except the easy mode can be a bit too challenging for novices.
The controls merit mention here, too; although an EA-style power-and-release meter is used, the graphic displaying it is so small and the colors distinguishing the markings so subtle in variance from the main color of the meter that at first you might not notice it and wonder how the heck you’re supposed to control the darn game. Still, you get what you pay for and this is only a $15-$20 game.
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The graphics are okay but it quickly becomes obvious that more time was spent on the alternate settings than in the player models or the design of the standard bowling alley. And the music is pretty forgettable.
All in all, if you’re looking for a basic bowling game with some depth and extra modes and such and aren’t really looking for anything that authentic, Strike Force Bowling is worth the pocket-change price. But beyond that, it’s not a good enough game to really wow most gamers as an authentic sim or anything. At the end of the day, you’ll end up wishing for an online mode, more human opponents and an easier easy mode for the young’uns.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
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+ In standard lanes, the basic game mechanics are solid enough. + Plenty of modes and “weird location” lanes to keep the challenges fresh. |
5.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
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— Computer-controlled opponents play pretty flawless bowling, even on weird locations. — Not enough focus on the bowling alley experience. — No online mode, for a title where it’d be a no-brainer. |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Although worth the pocket-change price they’re charging, Strike Force Bowling spends too much time on weird locations and alien opponents to really appeal to older, more sim-style gamers. And the easy mode is harder than it should be for very young kids. Worth it only if your expectations are low. | |
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Tags: Strike Force Bowling
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Aug 9th, 2004 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
