GameSpot editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Mediocre
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 07/31/2006
- Released on: 06/28/2006
- Originally published on GameSpot: AMF Xtreme Bowling (Xbox) Review
You know you're in for a treat when you're playing a game that can't even properly decide what it's called. AMF Xtreme Bowling (or AMF Xtreme Bowling 2006, depending on whether you're reading the front of the box, the back of the box, or the title screen) is an awfully standard bowling game with a few basic modes.
It's not quite as Xtreme as BASE jumping off of a building, but hey, what do you expect from a bowling game?
The "Xtreme" part of the game comes into play when you're selecting which alley you'd like to bowl on. You can choose from a handful of different locations, and you're also given the choice between a regular lane and an Xtreme lane, which, as anyone who's been in a bowling alley on a Saturday night recently probably knows, is the same lane, but the lights are turned out and some joker has hung up black lights and neon and stuff.
The bowling itself is roughly identical to all the other bowling action we've seen on consoles for the past several years. You aim your shot, then start up a golf-swing-style meter to determine power and accuracy. The physics of the ball motion and pins seems OK, though occasionally a pin will take a reasonably hard hit from a ball and stay up.
Additionally, the game appears to model oil dispersion on the lane. You can choose from a handful of different oil patterns. No oil at all lets you set up one shot and hit it over and over again, making perfect games almost trivial. Putting different oil on the lane is supposed to have an impact on your game, but bowling a game full of strikes with the "very difficult" oil on the lane felt just as easy as it did when there was no oil at all, even when using a newly created bowler with no accuracy points at all.
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