This one is almost a no-brainer. If you own a Wii and spent countless hours playing Wii Sports Bowling like I did, you'll probably be wanting to pick up Crave's Brunswick Pro Bowling for your tiny white box. I got a chance to try out the game yesterday and it once again reinforced the feeling that if a system were ever made for a bowling game, the Wii is it, and Brunswick is shaping up to be a fine example of the genre, taking the core gameplay established in the Wii Sports version and fleshing it out with real goals and realistic physics.

The basic game remains the same. Line up your feet, choose a trajectory, and then hold down B to swing and release, hopefully not launching the Wiimote through your widescreen. Tossing the ball was incredibly intuitive and every bit as fun as it was when the Wii launched. By twisting the controller as I released I could apply spin to the ball, which lead to me missing the shot due to my serious lack of real life bowling skills. Using the keep it simple, stupid technique I was soon bowling spares and finally even a strike, nearly taking out a Crave PR person in the process.

In addition to the basic gameplay, Brunswick Pro Bowling takes the game even deeper. Throughout the course of a lengthy career mode you unlock real bowling equipment, like specialized balls with their own physics and characteristics. The lanes across the ten environments included in the game change during the course of a match...with a press of a button you can see the oil pattern of the lane, allowing those really into the sport to get overly technical about how they line up their shots, which the more casual among us can rely on the good old 'swing your arms as hard as you can and pray' method.

While I can't speak for the PS2 or PSP versions of the game, Brunswick Pro Bowling for the Wii is the natural progression from the mini-game that launched a thousand Wiimotes into players' television sets across the country. Check it out when the game itself launches next month. Special thanks to Crave for allowing me to post a story that includes the phrase, "specialized balls."

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