Brunswick Circuit Pro Bowling (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 7.4 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Jeff Gerstmann
• Reviewed on: 11/02/1998
• Updated on: 05/01/2000
• Released on: 09/30/1998
• Originally published on GameSpot: Brunswick Circuit Pro Bowling (PC) Review

Bowling. A sport that depends more on talent and raw wrist power than actual physical conditioning. A sport that can be so laid back that there's even a section of it that involves buying beer. While THQ can't bring you a six-pack should you throw a strike on the seventh frame, it does manage to deliver an extremely realistic bowling title, complete with some of the best big-money bowlers in the world today.

To start, you can create your own bowler or simply choose one of the 13 Brunswick Pro Staff bowlers in the game. Each bowler has a little video clip (similar to THQ's wrestling game, WCW Nitro) that proclaims how much of a badass he is. These clips provide the most hilarious gaming moments in recent memory. Each video is chock-full of bad reads, funny-looking bowler types, and poorly conveyed braggadocio.

There are a few different gameplay modes to choose from. Exhibition games get you going quickly, with no strings attached. Just pick a bowler and get on with it. Other modes include the skins game, the tournament, career mode, and cosmic bowling, which turns the lanes into a discotheque. The lane is realistically oiled, which forces you to move around the lane and vary your rolls as conditions change, but this doesn't really make the game terribly hard. Expect to bowl around 150 within your first two games.

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