Strike & Spares


Title		Strike & Spares
Game Type	Sports
Publisher	Beyond Entertainment
Players		1-8
Compatibility	All
HD Installable	Yes
Submission	Chris Vella  cvella@specdata.com

Review
   This game is a bowling game which can have up to 8 players playing at
the same time against each other. I'm assuming you all know what bowling
is so I won't explain how to play the game.

   The first thing you notice when you start the game is the hi-res
overscan interlaced graphics. It looks real nice. You are then presented
with a menu where you can configure the game to fit your preferences, for
instance you can register your name, select ball color, and select either
practice or league play. The game is loaded with options. The game keeps
track of your last 20 games bowled and draws a chart of your progress.

   When you start to bowl you are presented with a screen that shows a
first person view of the alley, you can only see the bowling ball (it
would have been nice to see an actual bowler) and some icons on the left
of the screen. The icons control how you will bowl the ball. You can set
how much and which way the ball will curve, speed of the ball, color of
ball and direction the ball will go. There are two ways to roll the ball,
one way is to click on the ball icon and an arrow will move across the
alley, click the button again and the ball will be thrown where the arrow
was. The second way is to move the mouse up the screen until the ball
crosses the foul line, the ball will then be rolled at the point it
crosses the line. I feel this method is harder as you will need a very
steady hand to be accurate. Once the ball is rolled it will follow any
preferences you set for that roll.

   The graphics are very nice in the game and sound effects are fairly
realistic, there is even the resetting bar that comes down after ever ball
rolled.  The game uses hi-res overscan interlaced graphics, something not
found in many games. My only gripe is that you don't see a bowler and only
see the ball. The pin action is not totally realistic (it could use some
more complex algorithms) and could also use some more frames of animation.

   In conclusion, this is a decent bowling game, it's not as good as Team
17's KingPin but is still a good bowling game. Bowling I feel is very hard
to simulate on a computer and thus I look at this game as more of an
arcade game than a simulation. It has lots of options, plays well enough,
and has nice graphics, but I would still try it before you buy it. I
recommend it only to fans of bowling.




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