If you’ve somehow gone this long without being familiar with Donut Games, here’s the gist: They consistently release some of the best 99¢ pick up and play games the App Store has to offer. All of their games are simple to play and feature a three star grading system where only a tiny bit of skill is required to earn one star, but getting all three is generally easier said than done. This gives their games a surprising amount of replay value, especially if you’re the kind of person who insists on mastering every game you download.
The latest game from Donut Games is Cave Bowling [99¢], and somewhat similar to the Geico commercial features cavemen bowling, or what I suppose Donut Games imagines prehistoric bowling to be like. Apparently, bowling in the caveman era involves chucking your bowling ball to hit a series of bowling pins set up on different terrain while nearby cavemen (and cavewomen) watch in amazement.
At its core, Cave Bowling is very similar to the numerous catapult games available on the App Store as your control is limited to the angle and power of your shot. If you knock down all the pins, you unlock the next level. The game is scored by collecting bonus bones scattered about the level by hitting them with a pin or the bowling ball itself, and there’s additional bonus points to be made by chaining pins on to one another. Points are deducted if you hit any spectators.
As you progress further in the game, Cave Bowling turns in to an entirely different animal. New gameplay elements are introduced such as turtles which you can bounce your bowling ball off of, snakes and other critters that periodically get in the way, and movable objects which can be positioned along a track. Like other Donut Games titles, difficulty scales well as each of these new elements are introduced one at a time.
Cave Bowling is a fun physics game that comes packed with everything we’ve come to expect of Donut Games. My only real nitpick is I wish it came loaded with Game Center, as Donut Games’ web-based scoring system leaves much to be desired. Either way, I’m having a great time with Cave Bowling, as are people in our forum. We’ve basically been at the point where it’s safe to just blindly download anything Donut Games releases, and I’m glad to say Cave Bowling continues that tradition.
