Brunswick Bowling Wii... Am I doing something wrong?

[Gamereviewgod]

Or is this just an absolutely abysmal game?

The ball constantly hooks no matter what I do. I cant throw a straight ball at all, which is how I play in real life. No matter what, the ball takes off to the right. Even when I adjust for the oil on the lane, it still doesn't make a difference.

The lack of a tutorial doesn't help. It sounds stupid (swing your arm dipshit!) but unlike Wii Sports Bowling, the animation doesn't follow your physical action. Animation is slow and dictated by the game. When is the proper point of release? When the avatar lets go or when I naturally swing let loose? Do I follow his motion? Ugh.

The pin physics are bad. Collision is more natural than Wii Sports, but the pins are way too light. That's beside the point though. I just can't figure out what it wants from the swing. The manual might as well not even be in the case.

[Dangerboy]

Isn't Brunswick the game that DOESN'T Use motion at all? You're just flicking your wrist at a meter. I could have sworn IGN tore this game apart in a week-in-review video.

[Gamereviewgod]

There is no meter, which is part of the problem. There are no on screen indicators to speak of.

[LiquidPolicenaut]

Damn, if you didnt start this thread I would have! I thought the same thign when I tried the game, then I realized its just crap. Its like they added the "Wii" elements later on as an after thought and thus it plays nothing like Wii Bowling (which I was hoping for). Hopefully someday, someone will make a full game that at least plays like Wii Bowling...and Wii Tennis...and Wii Golf :)

[scooterb23]

I didn't get the Wii version based on the above comments, but I did buy the PSP version. For the heck of it...here's a "One hour in" review.

First of all, Crave's name is on the front of the box. They made THE best bowling game during the PS2 / XBox generation...Strike Force Bowling. And this game has the Brunswick name on it, which was part of the 2nd and 3rd best bowling games on the PS1. So I had high hopes for this game.

Let me just get the negative things out of the way. There were two major things that got to me, and almost made me put the game away less than 10 minutes after opening.

First off, the manual is bloody useless. It tells you to pull back to start the swing, and push forward to release the ball...that's it. Sadly, this doesn't even begin to describe how to actually use the swing meter. Speaking of the swing meter...

The swing meter is completely backwards. Now, think about real bowling for a second. Your backswing is what gives you your power, and your foreswing / release gives you your accuracy. In this game, it is 100% reversed. You pull back on the analog nub to make your backswing. Push forward to set your speed. But that's just a part of the story.

Now, the instruction manual says to aim for the green area on the meter to get perfect accuracy. WRONG WRONG MOTHER F-ING WRONG!!!!! You hold it that long, your meter blows right by the green area, and you toss it in the gutter. Instead, there's a little white line halfway up the meter that you have to release the nub at to get it to stop in the green area. If you release it early or late, you miss your mark. Thanks for telling us.

Then, for the power, all you have to do is flick the nub up at some point in your foreswing. If you flick it near the top of the swing, full power. Near the bottom, low power. The catch with this is, the foreswing doesn't start when you let go of the stick on the backswing...you have to wait for the meter to start down. Hit the stick early, and you're likely to get almost no power. Again, absolutely none of this is explained in the manual, or is represented by the on screen swing meter. I hereby declare this "the most useless on screen power meter ever."

Having said all that. Once I finally figured out how the game works, I really began to enjoy it. The game has realistic lane conditions...meaning the oil patterns change as more shots are made. It's subtle, but I did notice that I was playing a different line by a couple boards at the end of my games than where I started.

The pin physics are inconsistent, but not overly offensive. You're likely to get rewarded for borderline bad shots a bit more than you should. If anything, in the PSP version, maybe the pins are a little more dead than they should be. Although, that may be the fact that my bowler has very little power this early in his career.

They do have a career mode that consists of league play and tournaments. Something that has not been in too many previous video bowling games. I did notice, during my third game, that my bowler began to fatigue...which made making good shots a little harder. But I appreciated that aspect, because fatigue is something that does affect a person after a couple games. I have not gotten too far into the game to see how tournament play works. League play so far seems to be 1 on 1 matches.

Still, despite all the flaws, there was something in this game I genuinely liked. When I got strikes, I felt like I was rewarded for making a good shot. And when I left a split, I could usually pinpoint where the shot went wrong. And that, for me, is the ultimate test whether a bowling game (and I am an admitted bowling game snob) works for me.

Again, I reiterate, I've played for about an hour...so it's possible that this game does not have the longevity of a Ten Pin Alley from the PS1 (still my gold standard for video game bowling). But once I got past the baffling and inexcusable, yet not fatal, flaws of the game; I found a pretty decent game.

Wow, that was a lot longer than I thought it was going to be. :)

*Edit, and can you believe I left out the most unique aspect of this game? To play, you hold the PSP vertically! Gives you a nice long view down the lane (although all the menus, inexplicably, are horizontal). You can switch to all horizontal in the options, but I love this aspect of the game. Perfect use for the PSP's widescreen.

[Gamereviewgod]

Any thread on a bowling game hinges on Scooter's opinion. ;)

You have to give the Wii version a shot and let me know what's going on with it. I spent quite a bit of time with it TRYING to get it, but it makes no sense. I had to slam it in a review.

[DreamTR]

You guys are all 100% correct. This is really a budget title for PSP/PS2, but put Wii on it, and let's charge $20 more! Horrible game. Wasted $34 on it.

[scooterb23]

Any thread on a bowling game hinges on Scooter's opinion. ;)

You have to give the Wii version a shot and let me know what's going on with it. I spent quite a bit of time with it TRYING to get it, but it makes no sense. I had to slam it in a review.


Hey, a guy has to look forward to something. I look forward to bowling games :)

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of spare money right now, but I'll see if maybe I can rent it somewhere. Or if someone wants to unload a copy cheap... :D

[Dangerboy]

Hey guys,

Picked up the Wii version...ran through it a few times.

It's actually pretty damn good in sections, odd in others. Scooter's PSP interpretation helped me with figuring out the wii version.

Here's how the control works on the Wii.

1. Ball Issue
First thing I noticed right away. Unlike Wii Sports, where it's one ball, have at it, these guys actually programmed in the ball physics; the house ball barely hooks, yet the regular style balls can banana all day, some more than others.

2. The Way the throw works.
I'm not quite perfect withi this yet, but here's the gist of what I understood so far. Everything involved in your throw is in sets of measurement.

There are 5 degrees of angle hook (far, near, straight, near right, far right).

This is based on at what angle the wiimote is facing when you release the B button. It's *roughly* straight, 45 degrees, 90 degrees. Straight is your dpad facing straight ahead/up at the ceiling, 90 degrees it facing your left room wall.

There are 3 or so degrees of strength (close, middle, back).

If you're leg is 0 degrees, and following your natural arm swing, about 15-30 degrees is a soft through, 45 degrees is regular, and anything past that is a hard throw.

You have to keep the remote 100% straight on the back swing and the front swing for it to keep a path. Otherwise it'll hook, and it'll hook like a bitch on a dry lane.

So far, I'm digging it. You just have to completely ignore the animation of your character.

[SaturnFan]

Hmm...I think i'll just walk down the steet to my local bowling alley then buy this.

[DreamTR]

Dangerboy, this game is fine on PS2, but it's garbage for Wii

[LiquidPolicenaut]

Hmm...I think i'll just walk down the steet to my local bowling alley then buy this.

I think I may do that too lol. I actually like bowling games but this one, at least on the WIi, is just unplayable to me. It should have been as simple to throw the ball as it is in WIi Sports, but its not.

[Dangerboy]

/me shrugs

I'm already at 170 average after two games. The league career mode is to much fun to pass up.

[Dangerboy]

242 high game.

Fatigued.

With a house ball. :)

Starting to really dig career mode.