ACA NEOGEO League Bowling

Genre: Sports (Bowling)

Players: 1-4 Competitive (Local Alternating / Local Splitscreen), Online Leaderboards

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Review:

League Bowling is a Bowling game released in 1990 in arcades and 1991 on the NEOGEO AES home console as a launch title, with a 1996 release on NEOGEO CD after being a Japanese launch title for that platform as well. This is the only Bowling game to release on the NEOGEO. This modern release sees the game coming to Xbox One and Nintendo Switch in 2018.

League Bowling features a fast-paced but relatively straightforward game of Bowling, which is somewhat surprising given the colorful, cartoony spiky-haired characters and overall over-the-top art style of the game. Personally, I was craving a bit more wackiness out of this game after this, and while there are three different game modes, the main difference in these modes is the way the game is scored, not the way it is played.

This release of the game includes a new “Hi-Score Mode” that challenges players to score as much as they can in one run before seeing a game over screen. There is also a new “Caravan Mode” that does much the same, but with the limit being five minutes. In addition, this release of the game includes both English and Japanese versions, and gives players a decent array of options, including various display options, sound options, challenge modifiers, button mapping, and online leaderboards.

At $8, I suppose League Bowling is decent, though it feels a bit bare-bones. Players looking for a good Bowling game will find one here, but not much else, and the lack of variety makes this a game that’s unlikely to hold the attention of anyone but the biggest of Bowling fanatics.

tl;dr – League Bowling is a fast-paced but otherwise fairly straightforward Bowling game, which is surprising given the exaggerated cartoony characters and over-the-top presentation of the game. It’s also a bit bare-bones as Bowling games go. Not bad by any stretch, but unless you’re a Bowling enthusiast it may not keep your attention for very long.

Grade: C+

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