The Star Bowling
| PLAYERS | 1-2 | VGA | - |
| SAVE | DISCS | 2 | |
| GENRE | Bowling/Gal | SYSTEM | Sega Saturn |
| RUMBLE | - | REVIEW DATE | 12/11/2003 |
It's everybody's dream come true, bowling with five Japanese women! OK, maybe not, but that is the premise behind The Star Bowling. The game features a simplistic bowling engine with 3D graphics. No characters are seen on screen. Instead the game uses live action FMV to make it feel like you are really bowling with these girls. Does it work? Not quite, but it looks better than a polygonal model would. When it is one of the girl's turn to bowl a pop up video will appear. As the ball goes off screen on the video, it appears in game and rolls into the pins. It's a pretty clever way to handle it. This way they can use one or two generic videos of the girl bowling while the outcome is decided in game, thus the need for less video footage.
In story mode you pick two girls and then bowl as a team against the three remaining girls. The story is told via a mix of voiced live action and still frame pictures with text. Randomly during the game a character will take a time out to ask you a question and you are given a few choices on how to answer her. All of it in Japanese of course. The girls will jump for joy when they do well or pout when they mess up. They also cheer you on when you happen to do well.
In addition to Story mode you can bowl by yourself or against a human opponent if you so choose. The game's main draw, however, is story mode and it shows. The bowling system is nothing special and offers only a minor diversion. It uses a standard setup where you press the button once to start the meter, again when it reaches the amount of power you want and then one last time to determine if the ball will travel straight or curve to either side.
The graphics are nice and colorful. Video quality isn't too bad with minor artifacting. The music in the game is calm and relaxing and gives the game a laid back vibe. That is until one of the women squeals with glee. They get a little too excited for bowling. "Bye Bye!" indeed.
As a bowling game I can't recommend The Star Bowling. It doesn't do anything wrong, there is just nothing about it that screams "fun." If you can understand Japanese it may be worth a look for the novelty of the story mode. After all, how many chances do you get to bowl with five Japanese women? That appears to be all that the game has going for it though.
©2003 Ed Finnegan
