Topic: Arcade Bowling (First Impressions)

So, for 200 points we getting our first bowling (uhem! Skee Ball) title on the dsi... is it a clunker or something more special?

It looked interesting to me and I'm tempted to get it but I dunno... lack of multiplayer is a bit of a shame. Still, I could be convince to get it.

Well, I downloaded it (what a surprise, eh?) Seems to really echo the 70's and 80's quite a bit, which is probably thanks to its creator, who worked for Activision in the 70's and 80's. Game mechanics are kind of poor, and this definitely isn't any "Skee Ball" (which I greatly urge all of you iPod Touch/iPhone owners to download, not only is it a dollar cheaper, but it's streaks above what this game is.) Basically, though, it's Skee-Ball, just with a more vintage feel. As I said, the game mechanics and controls are kind of lacking and graphics aren't that great, three different music tracks to choose from (which is one of the plusses for me of this game, and perhaps the only plus) so I am going to have to give this one a 4/10. It really doesn't live up to what I thought it was going to be. Fun to play for a bit, but then you get bored with it, and I guess at $2 (for us Americans) it's alright. Just keep in mind there's a better game out there "Skee Ball" on the APple App Store that's not only 99 cents but it's a much more awesome game, with unlockables and wifi score boards and just an all around better experience.

Plus, there's another Skee Ball coming to DSiWare to my knowledge.

Yup its skee ball not traditional bowling. Its not bad and the music and neon lights are nice but Wi-fi leaderboards would help overall.

Gameplay and controls just kind of suck, is all.

It would have been nice to at least have had some unlockables! Are there any?

I'm sure multiplayer would've helped a lot, am I right?

So stay away, is what you all are saying?

It might've helped half a point, but really... the graphics and implementation of the game and controls are so wonky that I wouldn't even bother.

Pretty much. Unfortunately. I was excited when I read the official description from Ninty but its not that great.

I thought it would've been a cool little game too. Who's the publisher anyways?

ABOUT SKYWORKS®

Skyworks® recently entered the iPhone market. The company has seen rapid consumer acceptance of its games in the fast growing Apple App store. The company's games have quickly arisen to the Top 100 games of their respective segments in the App Store.

Skyworks® has significant proprietary intellectual property. This includes dynamic ad serving technology, one of the largest, high quality casual game catalogs in the industry with a significant portion in 3d/sports games, and tools and routines to build games. In 2007, Skyworks® built ESPN's Arcade gaming section, and continues to operate and power the website with a portion of its proprietary gaming catalog (www.espnarcade.com).

The company pioneered the concept of advergaming and built and launched Candystand.com for The Lifesavers Company. The company operated as a custom game developer until 2007 and achieved over one billion advergame downloads and 40 million monthly downloads from client's web sites. Skyworks® clients included P&G, Sony, CBS, ESPN, Kraft, Ford and BMW.

The company's management team includes former C-level executives from top rated internet and consumer companies.

It's not THAT bad. A 5 is a fair score.

The graphics are fairly impressive and skeeballing is mildly entertaining, but it's all over in a few minutes. I think it took me more time to download it than to double the high score. The soundtrack gets repetitive and annoying, even though there are 3 tracks and I only played for 10 minutes. With that said, it's not unplayable and is probably on the better side of 200-point DSiWare games (though that isn't saying much).