Sometimes taking a sport and axing out pretty much any sort of realism is the key to making a fun arcade version of said sport. With Crazy Monster Bowling, as you can probably guess just by the title, this is about as far from simulation bowling as you can get.
It features many, many, many different kinds of monsters which act as the bowling balls in the game. You’ll hurtle your monster ball down one of many different kinds of lanes, typically in an environment that’s filled with many objects and hazards that you’d never find on the pristinely polished lanes of a normal bowling alley.
Playing is super simple. Just swipe to send your monster ball down the lane, and continue using swipes as it rolls to steer, speed up, or slow down. There’s 3 stars positioned along the lane which you’ll want to collect to maximize your score, and once you reach the end you’ll smack into 10 “pin" monsters in an effort to knock them all down.
There’s only 5 “frames" during each game, and you only throw your ball once per frame. So if you fail to knock all the monsters down don’t expect to pick up the slack by getting a spare.
Those aren’t negative things, though. In fact it’s the oversimplification of the bowling mechanics which I’m finding the most fun about Crazy Monster Bowling. It’s a very arcade-y experience. Just flick your ball, steer it a bit, avoid (or aim for) the crazy obstacles, and smash into a bunch of monsters as hard as you can. It’s surprisingly awesome.
Also, in case it wasn’t obvious with my overuse of the word many, a key element in Crazy Monster Bowling is variety. There are tons of monsters and a decent amount of lanes to slowly unlock using coins earned during play (or bought with IAP, naturally). So far the unlock prices seem to be pretty reasonable compared to what I’ve been earning through just normal play, and in addition to the free version of the game there is a paid version which starts you off with a very generous amount of 50k coins.
I sort of rolled my eyes when I first saw Crazy Monster Bowling as the App Store is littered with cutesy, shallow games and this looked like yet another. But in the hour or so I’ve been playing the game I’ve been eating those initial impressions and having a blast doing so. There’s something very satisfying about the wacky bowling and it’s oddly fun collecting and naming all the little monster variants.
And hey, it’s free to check out, so cruise by the forums for some discussion and Watch List this bad boy in your TouchArcade (Free) app to get an alert when you can try it for yourself later tonight.
International App Store Links:
Crazy Monster Bowling, Free (Universal)
Crazy Monster Bowling – PRO, $2.99 (Universal)
