Midnight Bowling

Ever heard Pocket Gamer's First Law of Bowling? Probably not, seeing as we just made it up. It's basically this: the first time you ever go bowling, you're amazing. Then you just get gradually worse every time you play.

Trust us, we've been tracking this for several years and we're now posting negative scores. It's grim.

Perhaps what we need is a bit of practice away from our local alley. Enter Midnight Bowling, the latest mobile game offering ten-pin thrills on your phone. It's also one of the best, combining simple controls with plenty of depth. And thankfully, it's also the exception that proves our just-coined rule, so you won't see your scores sliding the more you play.

The simplest way to enjoy Midnight Bowling is via the Instant Play mode, which chucks you straight into a ten-frame bowling session, with the aim of getting as high a score as possible. Strangely, you earn money as you go for strikes, spares, and knocking down certain patterns of pins.

Virtual bowling couldn't be more straightforward. First you move left or right to choose where to bowl from, then you set the power by pressing to stop an on-screen meter, and finally you press again to set your aim. It's quick and just takes practice to master. Don't worry if your aim's a bit off though: once the ball is rolling, you can press left or right to add spin on your ball. (These controls are actually fairly standard for mobile bowling games, but if it ain't broke…)

The graphics are pretty good, too, being bold and well-drawn, with glitzy backgrounds for the bowling alleys – there are several to play on at different points in the game. The sound is less impressive, being a bit of a damp squib and with none of the clattering you'd expect from a bowling game.

If that was all there was to Midnight Bowling, the appeal might wane fairly quickly. However, the Midnight Bar section is what will hold your attention in the longer term given that it adds three new ways to play the game.

First up is Tournament mode, which has you duking it out one-on-one with a series of mobile opponents, who get progressively tougher to beat.

Battle Mode, meanwhile, enables you to play against any single opponent, with the added spice of being able to bet on whether you'll beat them. Pleasingly, this extends to individual wagers within the match. For instance, they might bet you $2,500 that you can't bowl a strike in the next frame. And to really heat things up, you can also play against friends by passing the handset.

Finally, there's the Challenges mode, which presents you with a series of bowling tasks, unlocked as your cash pile reaches certain levels. Working your way through the Tournament and Challenges, in particular, should keep you busy for several hours.

Gameloft's policy with its Midnight titles is clearly to take simple, casual games and then adding in extra modes to give them more depth. It's a strategy that works well, ensuring Midnight Bowling strikes it lucky in the mobile bowling genre, rather than ending up being a spare part.