Downhill Bowling

When I went to play Downhill Bowling, my assumption that it would be an easy "pass," meaning I wasn't likely to review it. Bowling games typically have the same "direction and force" UI as golf and pool games -- stereotyped and dull; and bowling is typically adopted as a theme by people playing with 3D for the first time, because you need a very limited number of models that needn't be high poly. Add a primitive physics engine, and the game practically writes itself. So, you know, most bowling games suck, though occasionally you run into one (like Large Animal's Rocket Bowl) that at least uses the basic tropes in a novel and entertaining way.

So does Downhill Bowling,

It isn't really a bowling game; it's a race game, of sorts. Each level is a track in a 3D landscape, down which your ball rolls; all you really do is left-and-right arrow to try to stay on track, ala a racing game. Down the track are coins, and the feeling is something like a 3D Sonic as you try to grab as many as possible en route; there are also occasional power ups and racks of bowling pins, which you want to try to hit at the right point to gain a strike. You can either play simply for points, or in "timed" mode, in which you try to get through the level as quickly as possible while scoring as many points as possible. High scores get uploaded to a server.

It's surprisingly engaging -- and also swift and responsive, an impressive demonstration of the superiority of Unity as a browser-based 3D platform over Flash, certainly.