Date Night Bowling, developed by Serenity Forge and published by Way Down Deep, is a casual indie game that doubles as a bowling and dating simulator. Its style and music bring an arcade-y, retro feeling to gameplay. The game features 10 playable characters who can be paired with any of the other 10 for their bowling dates, two different bowling venues, and a few game modes that allow for multiplayer or casual bowling without the dating mini games. Players are also required to play through a standard game with eight of the 10 characters to unlock them for bowling dates.
Date Night Bowling does a lot of things right in such a simple premise. The style of the game is absolutely charming and fun, down to the framing of the screen in the shape of a box television screen. The sound effects are fun, and the music kept me feeling upbeat the entire time. The ability to choose which characters the player wants to pair up is a fun element as well, as each character has their own personality quirks, and their brief conversations will change based on the pairing.
In terms of gameplay, the bowling part of this game is intuitive and fun. I got fairly good after several games on the default settings, but there definitely seems to be a good amount of customization to switch up the game however the player sees fit. The dating minigames that occur between rounds of bowling are relatively simple in terms of their mechanics, but they break up the bowling and add refreshing variety. Depending on the player’s performance in these minigames, characters will have dialogue at the end of the game of bowling regarding their chemistry and a potential future together.
A few of these minigames did require me to play them a few times in order to get the hang of them, but that was part of the fun for me. I did have some issues with certain minigames and timing. One minigame in particular, one that requires the player to move the left joysticks corresponding with arrows on screen, never worked very well for me, potentially due to some wear and tear on my Nintendo Switch Joy Cons. Other minigames that relied on player response times seemed a bit inconsistent just from my observations. Some marks I was sure I hit did not go through, and others I didn’t think I completed were fine.
Though there are many potential character combinations, after playing just a few times, it is easy to fully get a handle on the minigames and bowl very well. I still found myself enjoying them, but I can definitely see it getting repetitive with extended play. I also did find myself wishing that there was a bit more content after the game concludes, letting the player know how the characters’ next date went, or what they told their friends after the date about how little chemistry the two had. Even adding another bowling venue down the line could be exciting for players. This is definitely a game that I could see feasibly adding a large update and/or DLC later on with new characters, a new venue, more dialogue, etc.
I thoroughly enjoyed the look of this game and found the minigames quite fun alongside the bowling. I could see myself exhausting a lot of dialogue and gameplay strategy relatively quickly, however, but I think a DLC or content update would definitely help with this in the long run. For these reasons, I’m giving Date Night Bowling an 8/10. This is a very charming and visually appealing game for the casual player who is looking to get addicted to minigames!
Check Out the Date Night Bowling Trailer:
For more information, visit http://datenightbowling.com.
I have been playing video games since I got my first pink Gameboy Advance SP when I was six years old. From that point on, video games have held a special place in my heart and I have been fascinated by the way games involve the player in the narrative and how their mechanics interact with that narrative. As an aspiring video game narrative writer, I jump at the opportunity to play any and all games at my disposal.
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