Brunswick Pro Bowling

Bowling is a quintessential American sport, and not something we partake in too often in the UK. Getting to the nearest bowling alley is usually a lot of effort, and once you get there you pay too much to play in a smelly building with sticky carpets.

It’s much easier just to play bowling on your Wii at home. You get to fling the ball like its real and there’s no risk of catching an unpleasant disease. Wii Sports includes a perfectly functional bowling game, but Brunswick Pro Bowling is hoping to attract serious fans of the sport.

Tragically the game can’t seem to get a single thing right. Taking part in the career mode is a torturous experience thanks to it forcing you to watch every single move your opponent makes, there’s no option to skip. And the bowling mechanics themselves are a huge misstep.

Rather than your actions being translated to the game in real time, so the character moves when you do, you have to first make the bowling movement then watch your avatar very slowly throw the ball down the lane. It feels disconnected, and you’re never quite sure what’s going to happen because it’s hard to link your movements to what (eventually) occurs.

Your bowling is also affected by the ‘oil patterns’ on the lane, but the game never really explains what this means or how you’re surprised to deal with it, resulting in lots of trial and error as you try to work out the meaning of the arcane symbols.

Verdict: 25%

Very slow and boring, it can’t even get the basic bowling right. A waste of time. Play Wii Sports Bowling instead.