Product Description

Brand new and Sealed Nintendo Wii Game. Backed by a 45-day guarantee.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #661 in Video Games
• Brand: Crave Entertainment
• Published on: 2007-08
• Released on: 2007-08-21
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platform: Nintendo Wii
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .60" h x 5.25" w x 7.51" l, .36 pounds

Features

• Realistic Physics-Real time changing lane conditions for the player to master during the course of a match
• Career Mode- Work your way from an amateur to a true professional Brunswick Pro Champion
• 10 different environments to choose from
• Authentic Brunswick bowling products to improve your characters performance.

Customer Reviews

This is NOT Wii Sports Bowling
Brunswick bowling

The Interface for Brunswick Pro Bowling is a bit different than Wii Sports Bowling. At first, you will be thrown off by the slow backswing of your bowler, but if you disregard it, and throw the ball like you normally would, things will be just fine. After all, bowling is about making the same throw every time, and adjusting where you stand, not adjusting your throw, per se.

You will become accustomed to the difference in style (compared to Wii Sports bowling) after a few games. Be patient and you will find this game can be just as addicting. One of the main differences in style is the addition of oil conditions on the lane. You will definitely notice that the ball reacts differently in the areas that are well oiled. You can also have two balls at your disposal, like in real bowling, where you would like a strike ball and a spare ball.

The career mode is set up of several `League Nights' in which you bowl 3 games against an opponent. Win 2 or more, and you will build up stats, but no money. In fact it costs money to participate in league nights. Eventually, you will get to a tournament, in which you can win some big cash. These comprise of 5-6 games, if you plan to win. There are also major championships. The career mode seems pretty well laid out in scheduling matters. I wish it was a little easier to make money along the way.

Yes, it is very slow to make money and there isn't a ton of stuff to buy. By the time you make enough money to buy anything, you'll question whether you'll want to change your entire style to adjust for the increased hook of the new ball. That's where practice mode comes into play. I bowled 6 sets of 3 games before I made it to a tournament in which I made any money.

Brunswick Pro Bowling keeps track of a good amount of stats, including your average, high score, # of strikes, spares, turkeys, etc.

One thing I didn't like about multiplayer, is that I couldn't find a way to use a separate controller for each player. Each player is forced to use the same controller, and that is just plain dumb. On a controller where it is advised to wear a wrist strap to protect your tv, I don't want to continuously trade off the controller every 30 seconds. What were they thinking?

Overall the presentation is a bit dry, and the music isn't great at all, but I've yet to play a bowling game with a rock n roll soundtrack anyway.

Those looking for a more in depth bowling game than Wii Sports will find it here, if you show a little patience to get past the presentation differences.

8 Fun
5 Graphics
8 Replay Value
8 Control Scheme
2 Multiplayer

Very disappointing
The negative reviews here are correct: this is a very disappointing game. I'm glad I only rented it so I'm only out eight bucks instead of forty.

The player has too little control over the game play: the ball seems to roll pretty much the same no matter what you do with the Wiimote. Also there is an annoying delay in the response time of the virtual bowler on the screen, which is not present in the Wii Sports version.

The bowling characters are very limited in variety and design, and you'll get tired of the responses to a spare (a spare tire rolls across the screen--ha ha very funny)or a strike (a bowling pin carries a sign like he's on strike--please).

Save your money and stick with Wii Sports or wait for a better bowling game.

Could have been a lot better
I've been bowling for years and was yearning for something with a little more realism than the Wii Sports version of bowling (which I do enjoy playing).

My thoughts as I played this for the first time:

"Why are all of the characters for the quick play mode so fugly?"

"Why is there a several second delay between my movement and the character's?"

"Why isn't there a multiplayer career mode?"

"Does the house ball have to be so incredibly crappy?!?"

"Why is my custom made character still pretty darn fugly???"

To elaborate on my thoughts - the characters look like something designed by someone taking a correspondence course on how to create game skins. I'd much rather have something cute and cartoon-y than a freaky sickly slacker weirdo.

The alleys themselves are pretty nicely designed though. I did like the concept of being able to play in exotic alleys.

I would really have liked some "glow in the dark" bowling - equivalent to what some alleys offer late on Friday and Saturday nights. If I had my druthers, there would be some other fun gimmicks when you're not playing in career mode. Such as, what some alleys use to get you in there on slack nights - colored pins. If your 1 pin is red and you get a strike you win $100.

Or how about Rock n' bowl? Set up your own custom audio...something, anything to give this more of the Friday night Jersey Shore bowling that grew up with.

Back to the annoyances, one thing that seemed relatively benign at first, but turned into a major annoyance after an hour of playing this were the audio loops of the background ambient noise and the constant reiteration of a man's voice saying something like, "Come sit on my knee," about every 15 seconds. I muted it after a while, although it did seem suitable for the creepy looking characters we selected.

So after a few quick plays for warm-up, my boyfriend and I set up a couple of new ugly characters for "career mode". My EXPECTATION was that we could form some kind of multi-player league (which I hope will eventually materialize when a better bowling game for the Wii comes out). Better yet, I would love a multi-player league where you could play online against others!!! But alas, it wasn't meant to be with Brunswick Bowling. Robert had to sit in the recliner while I fumbled my way through league night scoring a whopping top score of 64 with the illustrious House Ball I was furnished with.

Now, I've bowled with some house balls in my time (including one that had a Tootsie Roll stuck in the thumb hole), but never one that zigzagged down the lane like the Brunswick Bowling House Ball. Even when I used the area that should have had the least oil, it was still all over the place like a possessed wombat.

My biggest beef is the huge delay between my movement of the Wiimote and the character's response. If you've ever done any internet gaming where you have significant lag, that's what it felt like to me. It was unnatural, distracting and frustrating, but hopefully, whoever develops the next bowling game for the Wii, will not rush it to market like this one and maybe we won't have to deal with such nuisances.

My final verdict on this is that it is best suited for solo play and most likely geared toward those who didn't enjoy the Wii Sports version of bowling. Since my bowling buddy and I couldn't even bowl together other than in the quickly boring quick play mode, this title is relegated to the bottom of my game pile - right there with Far Cry and Rapala Fishing Tournament.

Sorry Brunswick, I expected something better.