Ultimate Bowling Fighter Review
Supplier: Astraware
Product: Ultimate Bowling Fighter
Cost: £10.08 from the 4WM shop
Tested on: O2 Xda IIs
VGA Version tested on Xda Exec
Also available for Smartphone (not reviewed)Astraware bring us GamAzura's Ultimate Bowling Fighter, a ten pin bowling game with cartoon fighting game style characters and presentation.
First off, I should say that I'm not a huge real life 10 pin bowling fan, I've only been bowling a handfull of times and whilst I do enjoy it when I go I'm certainly no expert.
However, I have always thought that when done well, it makes a great subject for a video game so I was really looking forward to getting to grips with this game. These games usually have the same type of control dynamics as a golfing game but are considerably more immediate.
INSTALLATION
So, have GamAzura and Astraware done well? Let's get stuck in to find out, installation is straight forward, using the standard Windows installer, UBF happily installs to and runs from the storage card, it needs plenty of memory to run so if you have the option to install to a card then I'd heartily recommend it. Straight away the quality of the presentation hits you, as we've come to expect from Astraware the options screens are slick and feature packed. The game is styled along the lines of cartoon fighting games like StreetFighter and I personally think this adds a nice fun angle to the game (perhaps Ultimate Golfing/Penalty Taking/Juggling Fighter etc are in the pipeline?).
Also worth a mention here is the Astraware nag screen for unregistered copies, I really like the way they do this as I think it probably works for the publishers as well as it does for the users, whilst slightly limiting the game (no unlocking extras or playing the final round of the tounament) the main feature is a timed delay before the game starts every time you select your game mode, the more you play the longer the delay. This means that if you really like the game you will put up with the delay just long enough to prove to yourself that the game is worth buying (it certainly worked for me with Bejewlled 2), everyone's a winner!
SETUP
Game options include the extremely useful (and pretty much ever present with Astraware titles) ability to include a battery meter on the game screen, I find that this is really needed on any game that drags me in as I'll just sit there playing away with no thought to where my charger is!!
From here you can also turn on/off the "Special Ball" anim, I'd leave it on as it comes in very handy as it indicates when you managed to hit max power on your shot. You also have the option to set the in game animations to either on, off or PG. In normal or PG mode the fighters perform little dances, blow kisses and generally strut their stuff whilst all shots are greeted with a little screen animation just as you get in the latest Bowling alleys. The addition of a PG option is interesting, the rider states that the PG animations may not be suitable for younger players, in actual fact I've yet to see anything really offensive other than a Mr Chips style robot dude getting his head chopped off by Madame Guillotine, but at least the option's there and you can choose whether to use it or not.
I have to say that I got impatient waiting for the anims to play out after a while and so just turned them off, but they are quite amusing at first.
Also available in the Game Options menu is the choice of switching between high and normal FX quality, the only real noticeable difference that I could see between the modes was on the special ball animation, as the game runs perfectly on my [acronym="The third generation organiser (PPC) and phone from O2"]IIs[/acronym] with the High quality setting it's difficult to know whether this option makes a discernable difference to performance on lesser machines.
Also present and correct are the usual sound volume options for both SFX and music which is usually the cue for me to hit the mute music button and UBF is no exception with it's plinky and the drum music. The sound FX though are quite good and add to the atmosphere (even if the menu selection sound is a bit over the top).
GAMEPLAY
So with the game set up to your preference let's jump into the first game mode "Solo Game", this mode lets you play a single game to try and get a high score. Once you've chosen one of the four fighters and one of the four locations initially available you get the choice of control method. The two control options available are "Stylus" and "Guage", Stylus lets you set the direction and power of the shot by gesturing with the stylus on the PPC screen whilst guage gives a moving meter which you control buy stopping the meter using the d-pad enter button for direction and then power much like many golf games. Regardless of which control method you choose (and you should really choose the stylus option
) you should then move straight on into the game. First impressions of the in game graphics are excellent, the locations and bowlers are very well drawn and the animations smooth.
Everything you'd expect from a 10 pin bowling game is present and correct, I honestly can't confess to knowing exactly how the scoring works in real life but it seems the same here
, and both the control methods work very well.
The next game mode is Tournament where you play a round against each of the four opponents (including the unlockable boss type character, Boris in the final) to try to win the tournament and unlock one of the hidden extras.
The final mode is Multiplayer where up to four people can take it in turns using the same device, I still find it a bit fiddly to have multiple players using one device but the fun to be had from this game makes up for a bit of pass the parcel shenanigans. Also located in this mode, strangely enough, is the single player game v's CPU mode which allows you to take on any of the characters in a single game on one of five difficulty levels from "Very Easy" to "Very Hard".
In all of the gameplay modes available high scores are amassed and logged against either the Single Game or Tournament high score tables, one slight niggle for me here is that only the highest single game score from a Tournament game is recorded in the Single Game high score table, personally I'd prefer it to log all the scores.
My second minor niggle relates to the fact that there seems to be very little difference to playing as a different character, the same style, position, aim and power on each one produces a strike (once you've got the hang of it), to be fair I'm not sure how any different styles could have been implemented for each character and they do have discernable styles and skill levels when they are your CPU opponent.
HIDDEN EXTRAS
As I've already mentioned, winning in Tournament mode unlocks one of the hidden extras, herein lies my third, last and only major gripe with the game. In total there are only five extras, one extra character and four locations, the longevity of the single player mode in games such as Streetfighter owes a large debt to the number of hidden extras to be unlocked by continued play. I have played the game quite intensively for a week whilst putting together this review and once I'd gotten the hang of it after a couple of days I managed to clear all the unlockables in one sitting, although I had a reason to keep playing because of the review I do believe the gameplay is that good that I would've played it just as much in any case.
I'm struggling to decide how serious a flaw this is, now that I have unlocked everything I'm left with beating high scores as the only incentive to playing the single player modes again, and it isn't that far fetched to see the high score table filled with perfect rounds before too long, also there seems little point in me playing the Tournament game again at all as there is only Boris left providing me with a challenge in this mode and I can get straight to a game against Boris in the Multiplayer mode.
The most disapointing thing is that it would have been easy enough to at least double the number of extras in the usual manner, new outfit versions of the characters for instance would have just required the artists to come up with new designs. Even new ball effects and extra locations would have added to the long term interest. Ultimately (pun intended!) the addition of extra characters is what usually makes the "Fighter" type games work and this feels like a bit of a let down.
VGA
GamAzura/Astraware have also released a VGA version of the game to take advantage of the new devices on the market. The gameplay dynamics remain unchanged, as do the menu screens. The only noticeable difference being that the alley graphics take advantage of the higher resolution (it doesn't look as though the player or any of the game furniture around the screen have undergone a facelift), therefore the score stands for this version too.
Note that I have included screenshots from both versions for comparison, clicking on the half sized images to the left and right will take you to a full size screenshot so you can compare the difference for yourselves.
You can choose either version for the same price, so if you've got a nice shiny VGA display then you'd be foolish not to show it off by plumping for the VGA version.
QVGA
Great presentation
Excellent in-game graphics
Comprenhensive Options
Easy to pick up
Stylus control method works brilliantly
Addictive gameplay
Cons:
Not enough unlockable extras
A couple of other minor niggles but nothing major
CONCLUSION
My first impressions of this game were very positive indeed, the usual Astraware polish is in attendance and it's hard to see how they could have improved on the gameplay engine, the stylus control mode works very well. The graphics are of a very high quality and fit in with the theme perfectly. Unfortunately I have concerns over the lack of goals, which will affect the long term appeal of the game, a flawed masterpiece then.
So should you buy it? I have to say that despite the problem I've mentioned it is a great game and worth the money, if there had been plenty of unlockable extras then the score could have been 10 points higher. Roll on UBF 2!
4WM Score: 85%
Silver Medal
Linear Mode
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