PS3 Fanboy

The PlayStation Network's upcoming downloadable title High Velocity Bowling certainly hasn't met critical acclaim so far. When Andrew played the game earlier this year, he felt the game's use of the Sixaxis controller was gimmicky and didn't successfully recreate the feel of actual bowling like that certain other bowling game.

Not only does this game attempt to get in on the hype Wii Sports has created, it also appears to have stolen the name of one of Nintendo's most disrespected and abused characters of all time. Watch the video and see if you can find who we're talking about.

We can't say we're too excited for High Velocity Bowling, an upcoming downloadable title for the PlayStation Network. While holding the Sixaxis controller like a bowling ball is a novel idea, it doesn't translate the sport very well, unlike Wii Sports. The game's biggest flaw comes in the way it approaches spin: instead of analyzing the actual motion of a player's swing, the shoulder buttons must be pressed while launching the ball. In doing so, the game neither provides the full motion freedom of Wii Sports, nor does it provide arcade-styled precision of traditional button-based bowling games.

While we're glad Sony is trying a wide variety of games for its downloadable service, we can't help but feel that High Velocity Bowling hurts the platform more than anything else: it encourages active comparison to Wii Sports, and doesn't offer a compelling control mechanism. Instead of paying for High Velocity Bowling, might we recommend Home, which includes its own bowling game, instead?

Sony revolutionizes the games industry yet again by introducing a sports game that detects your motion through the controller! Instead of pressing buttons, one can hold the controller and move it as if it were a real bowling ball. We love the idea!

But in all honesty, we think that the SIXAXIS may not be as well-suited for this type of gameplay as other consoles. Joystiq's Kevin Kelly tried the game, and as we suspected, didn't have the easiest time with the game: "You literally flip the controller on its side, hold it with your thumb between the analog sticks, and then sweep your arm gracefully along an arc while holding and releasing one of the buttons to send your ball down the alley. Sound simple? Well, it is and it isn't. Holding the SIXAXIS like that feels really, really weird. It's like we're wired or programmed to hold that controller with both hands, and doing something like that makes our gamer genes cry out in pain. Although, in all honesty, once we got the hang of it, it wasn't all that bad."

So while not truly revolutionary, High Velocity Bowling should offer some motion-sensing fun for the Wii-less. Because it's coming through the PLAYSTATION Network, this experiment in copycat design should, at the very least, be affordable.