Championship Bowling

"Steps to line , releases the ball and it’s .... a STRIKE!"

Introduction

There are few bowling games out there in the market today. Actually with all shooters , action , platform games there is not appeal for anybody to create or even buy a bowling game. Bowling was very popular during the 70 and even in to the 80’s. Video games like , Mario , Donkey Kong were first debuting in the arcades in the early 80’s so with both hobbies it was inevitable that some one would create the two genres together. Unfortunately Championship bowling debuted in the 1993 when the only people bowling were 40 year olds reclaiming there once popular past time.

Back when the Genesis debuted video game companies could make a video game in under 2 months. In my mind Championship Bowling was not made to get good reviews, make everyone buy it or anything else that companies make video games today . It was made because some company just wanted to slap another game to the market. Not saying that Championship Bowling was bad or anything but it just was not made to be a hit or that good. Read the rest of the review to see if it is good or bad.

Gameplay

Well if you have an open mind about a bowling game like this one you will probably like it. If you are buying it because you think it is going to be an awesome game that will be the best game on your system , than your going to think it totally sucks. You should not ask much of this game because there are not many bowling games out there , and that are any good! So let’s get to the game play ... shall we...

This game offers two different options. The tournament mode and the regular mode. In both of them you pick a bowler , either , one skinny guy , one fat guy and two hot women. You also got to choose what kind of weight your ball wants to be. Which is pretty realistic because you do not want a fat guy having a 9 pound ball and you do not wan to have a skinny guy having an 18 pound ball. The different weight of the ball directly effects the game play , because you need a lot of power to roll an 18 pound ball , and if you use a 9 pound ball it is less likely you will get a strike. There is a 9 pound ball , 11 pound ball , 13 pound ball , 15 pound ball and the 18 pound ball.

There are also five different lanes to choose from each having a different color combination and a very slightly different style to bowl. The first one which is the color blue is a very slick lane, which means the ball will go much faster than a regular lane and you can get more strikes this way. However you can not curve the ball as well making splits very hard to complete. The next lane which is green which is a wider land , making it for beginners only , unless you want to get a high score. The following lane is orange. The orange lane is just a plain old lane which has no side affects or positive things. The next lane is purple . The purple lane is a very narrow lane , which makes for easy gutter balls and is for intermediate players. The next and final lane is the red lane , in this lane the balls go much slower , resulting in a lot of splits and spares to complete. So if you want to know a recommend using the orange lane because it is just a regular lane.

Every bowling game makes you shoot the ball right? Well of course because it would not be a bowling game if it did not. So you want to know if the shot system is any good. Well if you ever played Super Monkey Ball or Super Monkey Ball 2 , there is a mini game called monkey bowling. The shot system for that and Championship Bowling is very similar it is easy to use , easy to play and only has about a 5 minute learning curve. First you select your speed , which is just a meter and press A when you want it to stop the higher it is the bigger and more power your character will throw it. Next you will see the lane and a line moving back and forth in between the pins press A again to stop it where you want to throw the ball. Now depending on how much power and where you threw it shows how many (if any) pins you will knock down.

Now like I was saying before the game offers two option to go through the regular option and the tournament mode. The regular mode is your basic game where you play against your friend or just the computer. The tournament mode is where you select your character and you beat every one of the characters ( including the person you picked) which makes four different games. If you win you get a trophy and you go on TV. You can also play four players. However since there are only two controller ports in the Genesis you have to rotate the controller so that everyone has one , which is not such a big problem.

Graphics

There are graphics are not ground breaking and are not very good as one would suspect in a bowling game but know one is complaining because it was not designed to keep the video gamer enthused about how the game looks and it’s graphics. When you bowl you will see a number of different cooky and funny animations. Each player has different animations which makes you want to do everything with every player . Such as if you bowl a strike with the skinny guy you will see him slide on the floor in celebration , and if you see him get a gutter ball you will see him banging his head against some seats.

Now the characters are actually pretty well detailed. There face has hair , side burns , different looking/realistic noses , different color eyes which makes this game look even better. I was not even expecting a character with such fine detail rather just another ordinary John Smith which could resemble anybody. One of the characters has a tattoo on his leg in actually looks pretty cool , which makes me think the creators of this game did spend more time than you would think on the characters and the graphics on like other games coming out for the genesis or the Super Nintendo.

There is also a crowd behind you cheering you on when you play and you can see them waving there arms up and down in excitement. They are not as much detailed as the regular characters but they get the job done. The lanes in this game looks pretty good . When you knock down the pins you will see them shaking which makes pretty good animation.

Sound / Music

The sounds like every old video game will get on your nerves pretty fast because there is not words and not much selection of sounds that you hear making it very repetitive. The music you hear sounds like a classic music set in the 50’s with just beats . So I would recommend you get a CD player or radio and start listening to some tunes that way ,because the music in this game does not get you pumped up at all. So maybe if you play the radio or your favorite tune you will have a more enjoyable time.

Replay

I was very surprised that this game would be good, and that it would have a drop of replay value. I was wrong. this game offers two modes like I said before the regular mode is your basic game where you play against your friend or just the computer. The tournament mode is where you select your character and you beat every one of the characters ( including the person you picked) which makes four different games. If you win you get a trophy and you go on TV. You can also play with for players , by rotating the controller back and forth between your players.

I also mentioned about the different lanes to choose from each having a different color combination and a very slightly different style to bowl. The first one which is the color blue is a very slick lane, which means the ball will go much faster than a regular lane and you can get more strikes this way. However you can not curve the ball as well making splits very hard to complete. The next lane which is green which is a wider land , making it for beginners only , unless you want to get a high score. The following lane is orange. The orange lane is just a plain old lane which has no side affects or positive things. The next lane is purple . The purple lane is a very narrow lane , which makes for easy gutter balls and is for intermediate players. The next and final lane is the red lane , in this lane the balls go much slower , resulting in a lot of splits and spares to complete. So if you try each lane with every different character you will have a lot of different matches , and you can also find the best player and lane that best suits you. You also might want to try every lane , bowling ball , and character to find the an even better player.

For more replay value you can try to beat the tournament mode with each and very different character to choose from. If it is a rainy day and you have nothing to do try firing up your old Genesis and this game and try to get each characters has various different animations depending on how well they do. So try and get all the animations , because it is well worth it. They are all funny and pretty hilarious for a bowling game for any game in that matter. You will not be disappointed.

Challenge

There is a pretty good challenge in this game , you will probably not get a 300 (perfect score) or anything above 250 unless you practice more and more very day which maybe frustrating at first but you will get the hang of it. Each character has different abilities so it will take long to master all there movements and style of bowling. So I recommend you beating the game with one character than moving on to the next so that I will be easier to master. It is a very fun challenging game for 1 player and even more challenging for 2 or more players.

Controls

The controls in this game are very basic. You press A to throw the ball , start to pause the game and that is basically all the options you need. Throwing the ball takes a little bit more patience to master but only about five minutes. As previously stated the learning curve is just about 5 minutes . This is how the shot system works. Well if you ever played Super Monkey Ball or Super Monkey Ball 2 , there is a mini game called monkey bowling. The shot system for that and Championship Bowling is very similar it , it is easy to use , easy to play and only has about a 5 minute learning curve. First you select your speed , which is just a meter and press A when you want it to stop the higher it is the bigger and more power your character will throw it. Next you will see the lane and a line moving back and forth in between the pins press A again to stop it where you want to throw the ball. Now depending on how much power and where you threw it shows how many (if any) pins you will knock down. That is basically all the controls you need.

Overall

Overall , this game will keep you playing it for a long time. It is definitely the best bowling game out there. Since nobody is making bowling game for the Next Generation consoles this is your best bet if you are a bowling fan or just want a fun game. Since Genesis is long dead and games are getting rare and even more rare each and everyday you should look in stores that sell old games . You will find it for just some pocket change about one dollar. So it will not be much of a lose if you do not like . In fact I only have a about ten genesis games and this is one of the only ones that I come back to play once and a while. So if you want re capture your old days with the 16 bit genesis this is a good game in my book. So pick it up as soon as you can you will not be disappointed.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/19/02, Updated 10/19/02