Review: Bowling Master
Score:
79%
Version Reviewed: 1.0
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Are you the sort of person who likes sport in order to compete with yourself? In other words, to continually hone your own skills, upping your scores bit by bit? Or do you prefer playing against other human (or computer) players, going for real world competetive realism? If the latter, then Bowling Master isn't for you.
Like GolfPro Contest (reviewed recently), the emphasis on Bowling Master is very much the purity of the game itself. Essentially, you strive to make higher and higher scores, in a very realistic environment, all running on your Symbian smartphone. The unregistered version only allows a traditional wooden alley, but the full version offers three other settings, including one set on a space station (how topical!).
The control system for rolling down each ball is traditional, with three navigator clicks; one to choose where (left to right) to release the ball, one to select a direction and one to choose a power setting. Each choice has to be made quickly, with arrows and meters cycling around the possibilities fairly quickly. In use, Bowling Master is pitched about right and after repeated plays I was averaging around 140 to 150, slightly above what I'd be achieving in a real bowling alley. There's unfortunately no way of putting spin on each ball, an enhancement which would have made Bowling Master even more addictive.
The rendering of each alley and digital sound effects are lovely and the game's a pleasure to play. Animated graphics at the top of the frame show you which skittles are left to be knocked over and also provide arcade glitz. Which is just as well as there are no computer players and you can only compete with yourself.
Still, there's plenty of 'just one more go' about Bowling Master, as evidenced by my handset being confiscated my my wife while she comprehensively trounced my high score... 8-(
Reviewed by Steve Litchfield at