Hands on with ESPN Bowling on iPhone
Rack 'em up
Bowling is the world's most popular participation sport. Stinky, unfashionable shoes and smokey alleys certainly can't be the reason behind the phenomenon. No, perhaps it's the never-ending flow of beer and the tension-release properties of hurling a heavy ball down a lane.
ESPN Bowling delivers the experience without the danger or the smelly sneakers. One-handed motions replace the exertion of heaving a weighty ball, leaving you free to cusp a pint with the other. Of course, you'll have to supply your own brew, but it's exactly how the sport is meant to be played.
On your own, ESPN Bowling provides a small suite of game types, including Target, Precision, and Standard. A Standard affair sees you racking up pins in a ten-frame game, while Target and Precision modes have you working towards specific goals. Anyone familiar with bowling, though, knows that it's not meant to be played solo. Gathering a group of friends is how the game's played and that's true on iPhone, too. Up to four players can sync locally for a few frames.
That should give passing members of the public unaware of accelerometer-based gaming something of a spectacle.
Given how intuitive it is to play, it should be easy to get your buddies to join in a game or two. Rolling a ball down the lane involves holding the device upright and placing your thumb on the ball situated near the bottom of the screen. Moving your arm back, you then swing the phone forward and lift your thumb off the ball. Mind that you don't let go of the phone, just the ball.
The force used in your swing, as well as the direction are used in determining the ball's trajectory down the lane. How you hit the pins is a factor of your angle and velocity. It's easy to hurl the ball, but getting a strike requires a bit of finesse in form. After a landing a strike our first frame, we quickly realized it was beginner's luck and that waving the device around isn't good enough for a high-scoring game.
To be frank, there's nothing innovative or new in ESPN Bowling. That, however, isn't stopping us from looking forward to its simple, easy fun. The controls are responsive and feel natural, while the four-player option is definitely welcome. There aren't many multiplayer games to be had on iPhone, so we're eager to see how ESPN Bowling fares when it launches in the next month or so.
Apologies for the lack of images. Apple policy prevents iPhone game developers from making those kind of materials available prior to a game's release on the App Store.