put some humor into your game

Author's Rating:

Pros: entertaining, fun characters

Cons: tournament mode is impossible

Author's Review
I'm not usually a big video game fan. Mainly because I am not coordinated enough to deal with all the buttons that you find on today's game system paddles. (Remember the joystick with one button on the Atari? Now that was for me!) Nevertheless, when I saw some friends playing Ten Pin Alley, I wanted to try. No, I am not very good at it, but I really had some fun.

What I liked best about this particular game is the number of options available to you. You can play conventional bowling, or 9 pin. You can choose from 3 different alleys, one of which is a midnight bowling center. You can play in three different formats, open bowl (up to six people can play here), team play (teams of 2 or 3 can go against each other), or tournament play (you play against the computer, amateur or pro, to earn virtual prizes)

Once you choose what game you want to play, you get to choose what character you want to bowl with. There are many different characters to choose from (geeky little boy, to shapely woman, to overweight man, to muscled man). Once you pick your character, you get to personalize your character. What hair color do you want? What skin shade do you want? What color clothes do you want? You also get to personalize your ball. What material do you want your ball made of? How many pounds should your ball be? After you get all these options figured out, you are ready to play!

Like I said earlier, I am not very skilled when having to use more than one button in these video games. Luckily, this game is relatively easy to do. When it is your turn, you use the left and right directional to position your player. The marks are on the lane (just like in real bowling) so you can use them to help you figure out where you want to stand. After you select where you want to stand, you will see three different meters on the board, one meter is for the amount of spin on the ball, one is for the power you throw the ball with, and one is for when you want to release your ball. To set these for your throw, you need to hit only one button. However, the time to set these moves fast, so be on your feet! It may take a few times to get the hang of when you want to hit the button, but even when you make a mistake, it is kind of fun in this game.

When you make a mistake (for example, you may release the ball too late) the game becomes pretty entertaining. Your character may fall over backwards, or have the ball fall on their head....each character has a different blooper they perform. When your character does well, throws a strike or a spare, your character will celebrate (for example one of the women on the game will do a handstand when she gets three strikes in a row). Some of these actions can be pretty entertaining.

If you have a memory card, you can keep some interesting statistics, such as your game average.

The one complaint I have with this game revolves around the tournament mode. It is extremely difficult to beat the computer players, even when you are playing the amateur players. The amateurs routinely bowl 220 games. I've never tried the professional players, but I'd hate to see that.

If you enjoy to bowl, you may enjoy giving this game a try.