Wii Sports Club Bowling (Wii U eShop) Review

Everyone will have had their own favourite Wii Sports title ‘back in the day’. Some liked the fast paced Tennis, others the fast paced Boxing. For me it was the Bowling though, it’s an intricate sport that even with the limited motion controls of the Wii was able to be reproduced fairly well.

So on the Wii U, with the addition of the GamePad, HD, online – how has the game changed? It’s hasn’t really and that’s the only real bad thing we could say about Bowling.

The game might not have changed much, but the online has really added to the game. Like the other sports in Wii Sports Club you can play online with people from any country, your own Club (your region) or just your friends. Unlike Tennis, the game relies much less on fast paced action and even though our connection bar was low we were able to play multiplayer with four players with no lag at all. Like Tennis, the Wii U GamePad is only used for communicating pre-written quips to other players or using Miiverse posts.

The controls in the game are exactly the same with MotionPlus not adding anything over the originals. They work perfectly though, you tilt or roll your hand ever so slightly and your shot is off – just like in real life.

Online and locally you can play a standard game of bowling of course; 100 Pin Bowling which has made its way over from Wii Sports Resort as well as spin control challenges.

Locally only, there are a couple of new modes which are designed for a bit of fun as well as improving your bowling arm. Shoot for the Spares’ aim is for you to try and hit as many pins possible with a single ball. Sure sound easy, that is until the game throws multipliers onto the lane. Skittles sees you play dominoes with a bowling ball and trying to hit as many in a row as possible. Each throw will change the setup and you’ll have to keep up or be eliminated. Finally the Triple Whammy challenge gives you three shots to destroy several different shapes made out of 100 pins. All are fun diversions and it’s nice

That’s the thing about Wii Sports Bowling, no matter the configuration as long as you like bowling you’ll enjoy the experience. Along the way there are stamps and medals to collect as you get better at bowling.

Wii Sports Club Bowling is a ton of fun both online and offline, it is a shame the new modes can’t be played online but there’s still half of them available locally. Aside from the new modes, there’s not much else new here; how much can you change Bowling though?

Wii Sports Club is a free download from the eShop, it comes with a 24 hour trial for all available games. After which each sport can be purchased for $13AU forever or $2.60 for a 24 hour pass.