2005 IGF Finalist
Okay, so by now everyone is familiar with the interface used in virtually every bowling or golf game, right? Select direction and power, then trigger, and see where your shot goes.
RocketBowl uses the same interface, but this is a far different experience from your usual game. It's played not in a traditional bowling alley, but on a 3D modelled landscape with hills, valleys, obstacles and so on--more like minigolf, in other words, except that you're not trying to get the ball into a hole, but to knock down pins. And the physics engine nicely governs how slopes change the direction of your ball as it rolls.
More than this, your ball is not a traditional bowling ball, but a "rocket ball"--after you release it, you can trigger the ball's "rocket" to steer it left, or right, or increase its speed. (Over time, you can purchase balls with more and more capabilities--multiple direction changes, even the ability to fly...) As the game progresses, not only do the abilities of your ball change--but each new "course" becomes more difficult.
In other words, its almost more of a puzzle-solving game than a bowling title.
While there's a golf-like "course," with each "tee" posing a new bowling challenge, you don't necessarily have to aim for the "correct" set of pins from the current tee position--if you want, you can aim to knock down pins from another "hole," or increase your score by going for pins from a previous hole you missed.
And there are, of course, scads of "courses" to play on.
The conceit of Rocket Bowl is that this is a new sport introduced at the 1958 World's Fair in Kalamazoo. Supporting this theme are billboards for era-appropriate products along the course, sprightly lounge music, and little spaceships flying overhead (perhaps this is the 1958 of the Dick Tracy universe).
The Large Animals guys have, in summary, taken familiar elements, and combined them to create a game with novel and engaging gameplay. It's--a little goofy, but fun.
