The extremely hard opponents doesn't help much either. While it does provide a realistic setting and environment for a bowling game, it gets really boring after about 30 minutes of play. Now if I can just put up any sort of challenge to these damn computer bowlers. The overall physics is realistic to its real life counterparts. This extremely hard AI can be frustrating for beginners, or intermediate gamers for that matter. Almost all the time, they either spare or strike the bracket, bowling 220+. The computer opponent, only after playing 3 games, finally misses a shot.
By the 5th frame however, I was done for (Being behind -34.). Being the easiest setting, I hoped to challenge Craig Chisvin. Playing on rookie in the first tournament, I faced Alan Baba in the first round.
I have to question the difficulty though. Normal games can also be played in many ways, Exhibition, Tournament, Career, Practice, and Cosmic Bowl. There are also 2 different type of games, normal and skins. There are three levels of difficulty, rookie, amateur, and pro, available, the harder levels showing you less of where the ball is going to go. This makes the control very easy to learn. Spins are setup when you aim for the pins. The accuracy and the power of the shots depend on the timing of your click in the 2 bars that is filled quickly. The control consists of aiming the ball towards the pin. This bland sound would be helped by a Play By Play feature, but that was nowhere to be found, therefore, the sound stays bland. The only sounds you hear, however, besides the ball and the pins are 3 different crowd noises, the crowd cheering after a good shot, the crowd groaning after a bad one, and the crowd gasping if a pin is rolling to be knocked down. The sound made by the pins and the balls are believable to mimic their real life counterparts. The lack of variety of sounds adds no touch to the game. Similar to the graphics, the sounds are what u expect from a bowling sim, the sound of pins being knocked down, the ball rolling down the aisle, the crowd cheers, and that's about it. There is not much to be said for the graphics (Since it is a bowling game), but overall, it's decent. Instead of opting for a realistic setting with lighting, THQ decided to just color the bowlers in funky colors (Purple bowlers, neon orange balls, etc.). The second area that needs refinement is the Cosmic Bowl. The crowd consists of very pixelated bitmaps, therefore, in some camera angles, they and angled and look like flat boards for a crowd. The one area, mentioned earlier, that isn't well done is the crowd.
The pins and the bowling ball are also well done. The bowlers, bearing realistic texture mapping, move smoothly and realistically. Graphics are generally well done, except for two areas. There are three words that should be kept in mind though, it is bowling. It is even supported by Brunswick Bowling (The leading supplier of bowling products.), and 13 of its players you can choose to play as. Billed as the game with the most realistic control and physics available, it lives up to its claim. With the lack of competition, THQ ported their Playstation game of Brunswick Circuit Pro Bowling, adding the number of people that can play in a multiplayer game to 32 (Originally 6.). Bowling games are a rarity in the gaming world, not to mention the PC world.
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