Musician Henry Rollins once said that "one defines oneself by reinvention," by striving not to be like your parents or your friends, but by being original and different; to be yourself. That seems to be the intention of RocketBowl, a reinvention of the game of bowling that mixes minigolf-style courses with jet-propelled balls to create an experience wholly unlike bowling. RocketBowl achieves its goal of being different, but it's not actually much fun to play.
Justin Mette President of 21-6 and Lead Developer for RocketBowl answers a few questions about the game.
SBG:
"Traditional bowling scoring rules are (mostly) in effect here. Key differences are these: you've got three rolls each frame instead of two, and you can use your roll on frame 6 to go pick up stray pins from frame 2 or play ahead and knock over a few from frame 9.
At the end of the day bowling is more fun in person and zany miniature golf has already been done on the Live Arcade service (3D Ultra Minigolf). Forcing the two concepts together is entertaining for a game or two, but you probably won't be back for more."
Despite the things RocketBowl gets right, most players are more likely to pick up on this thread of general lack of ambition over anything else. The basic mechanics take some interesting directions within the confines of a bowling game, but the game's actual content is just an afterthought, offering only the bare minimum and lacking the depth to keep anyone outside of the devoted from coming back.
