Bowling
1978/Atari
....Review by Polas
- 10/15/01....
Now this, my friends, is Retro. Our very first game from the decade that brought us Happy Days, Abba, and Ants In The Pants; if that's not enough to get you to turn back immediately, then even I must commend your bravery. As long as you don't spend too much time staring at the eerie Italian bowler on the cartridge, you should be fine. Prepare for the ultimate 70's bowling sim: two bald men in bland outfits hucking big blue squares at 10 smaller squares! Hoo yeah!
There are 6 play modes in Bowling. All odd numbers are one player, evens are two. Modes 1 & 2 are standard; once you release the ball, you can tap up or down at any time between release and contact to hook it in one direction. Modes 3 & 4, otherwise known as "cheating bastard" mode, allows you to continously move the ball as much as you'd like after release, even while you're in the process of knocking over pins. If you can't get a 300 (perfect game) in this mode, stick to Pong. In contrast, 5 & 6 are the "straight ball" modes, in which you can only throw the ball in a straight line after lining yourself up. Not only is this the most difficult method of play, but it's insanely boring, and it also seems to be most effective at bringing the lovely and repetitive Atari rendition of a ball rolling down the lane noise to the forefront, probably since most people don't need to concentrate too hard in order to hit "fire" and watch the screen for 10 seconds. Personally, I usually stick to good ol' 1.
There are several reasons why I like Bowling, both the sport and the game. One, I'm one of the few people that can keep score without a computer. Basically, if you roll a spare (knock down all 10 pins in two tries, "/"), you get ten pins plus your next ball added to the first frame. If you roll a strike (all pins down in one shot, "X") in the first frame, your score in that frame is 10 plus whatever you roll on the next two balls. There are ten frames, and in the tenth, you get three tries; therefore, it's possible to get a total of twelve strikes in one game, which ends up being 300. Got that? Didn't think so. Oh yeah, there's one other very important reason I love this game - after your little bald guy gets a spare, he jumps up and down to strange wolf whistle effect. However, if you manage to Strike, your guy will start flashing colors, and jumping up and down as the Atari incessantly bleeps at you. As soon as I figure out how to get my pants to flash different colors, you'd better believe I'm heading down to the alley.
That's about all there is to it. Even though it's over 20 years old, I can still play this as much as any next-gen game, especially when whupping on my Dad (this game has been a personal favorite of ours for years), who is then forced to take the role of the lowly green-outfitted second player. Sadly, he can take me down more often than not in F-Zero, so I suppose it balances out. Anyway, it's pretty nutty to think this was considered a gaming breakthrough back in the day. But in my mind, ten frames and four colors is as good as almost anything out there today.
