Date Night Bowling Reviews

Wholesome fun

If treated solely as an arcade bowling game, Date Night Bowling is a solid game. As a the dating sim though, it fails to live up to expectations. Character interactions are done entirely via mostly lackluster mini-games and there isn’t a ton of character specific dialog to explore. Serenity Forge has proven they have the chops to deliver quality romantic comedy/slice of life stories with 2020’s Half Past Fate, so to see that aspect fall short is a little disappointing. That said, the bowling and vintage art style still makes this game worth playing. Just preferably if it’s on sale.

I really like the pixel art in the game and also the mini games that happen in between are fun. I happened to get a strike against one of the ladies and I think she made my game freeze, she wasnt havent it.

Cute little casual game that reminds me a lot of mobile phones game <3 Definitely recommend if you want something sweet and easy to play!

this is a cute little game. it has your typical bowling with a fairly easy to understand aiming and power system. the dating sim part is done through minigames which have a range of different little mechanics. if you successfully do a minigame, your chemistry bar fills there's also casual bowling if you don't care about the dating sim part overall i would recommend. it's a fun casual game

The graphics of the game are very retro which is a nice touch for the game. The bowling portion of the game itself is fine. The mini games are kind of a hit and miss sort of way. Some of them are great like the popcorn toss and the dancing, while others are pretty unforgiving such as the sing-a-long and the soda drink game. The instructions are pretty vague and doesn't offer a visual beforehand to study from. The choice in lanes reminds me of another bowling game from the Playstation era. The character are visually appealing, but lack any personality without any unique character backgrounds to play on. All in all, it's definitely a charming and fun game. If the developers could redo some of the side games while adding some character backstory, this game would elevate itself to some of the other bowling games in existence.

Bowling is an activity that will always average a nice sweet spot in between Jason Belmonte spin-pros demolishing lanes and families eating good-enough greased up snacks for a fun afternoon out. It’s hard to beat a night out on the town rolling large orbs down an oil-slick hardwood into a bunch of pins and making people believe you meant to do what you did. But bowling as a date night? Pretty underrated if you ask me. Serenity Forge and Way Down Deep hope to capture that serotonin in crashing pins and drinks with a potential significant other with some good ole Date Night Bowling. You’ll take control of one of ten participants in a game of bowling and camaraderie. As you bowl to knock down as many pins as possible, preferably all at once for a strike, you’ll engage in conversation and activities in mini-game form between frames that will gauge your compatibility with the other. Aiming for a high score is imperative for your competitive side, but aiming for high compatibility is key to really win the night! Date Night Bowling shows up aesthetically like the remastering of Super Bowling from the SNES you didn’t know you wanted, and it’s dope. The two lanes available give the casual vibes of an old school lane in the mid-afternoon and the Cosmic Bowling event that you know you love and is perfect to set the late night mood. Each of the ten characters comes with an array of outfits to suit your style and an array of personalities that match their spin and power stats accordingly. You want the most power on the team? Look out for a lack of sleeves. When choosing a lane, Date Night gives out more customization than I was expecting: different weighted bowling balls and different oil amounts make the experience a little more refreshing each game and can cater to each character’s strengths well. Hitting your target is pre-tensed with finding your sweet spot at the start of the lane, pinpointing where your ball will go, and calculating how much spin and power you want with simple button presses before letting gravity and momentum do the rest. Fans of Tekken’s Tekken Bowl will feel right at home with this style of gameplay, though I do wish there was an on-the-fly adjustor when you duff your shot. If you mess up your spin and power you’re forced to watch your score hit the deck on a bad throw, and having the chance to do last-second adjustments would have been nice. Casual games will give players the chance to hone their craft with a human or AI bowler, but Date Night Bowling is (not only the title but) the main attraction. Playing with another during Date Night will unlock compatibility mini-games in between frames. These range from cleaning your ball with the fervor of The Jesus, making sure you get the right soda, or making sure your teeth are clean without your companion noticing. These WarioWare style mini-games are a nice little break in the action and most are pretty enjoyable. Just be careful when trying the Tough Love difficulty as some of these mini-games are borderline impossible with how fast your reflexes are tested. When you’ve done a couple 10-frames, you’ll notice that Date Night Bowling suffers from a lack of content throughout its entirety. Each character will engage in a little conversation gauging interests and hobbies, and seeing each character is enjoyable, but most of the lines are recycled when the chosen pair plays multiple games together. Mini-games do change ever so slightly, but the bones remain the same, and if you’re already split on the bowling, the extra customization isn’t enough to bring you back for more. Date Night Bowling is a fun little trip to the past with a modernistic flavor of Visual Novel/Slice of Life Romance attached to it; but Way Down Deep asks too much of the player to fill in the blanks to make a full product out of its title. There never feels like enough character to fill the frames, but the on-point retro arcade bowling and the cute and quirky mini-games save this night out from being a complete gutterball. [quote][h1]Follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33247611/]A Review Is Worth 1,000 Words[/url] for more Steam Reviews.[/h1][/quote]

Whenever I launch Date Night Bowling in my game library, It reminds me the scent of opening a box full of donuts. I admire this game, the experience is smooth, I love how minigames are silly and even the pixel art is a banger but It's missing something. There's not enough dialogue to make a story and comes with only two soundtracks which feels like a two dollar game. Bowling is not challenging, Santa Claus could sit on my lap without changing the aim direction in the game and still blow a strike. The game is unplayable after hours of playing due to a crash occurring randomly and the lack of content being added makes me think that the game has been abandoned by it's developers.

I do think other comment on this game are fair, you don't get much explanation (What is oil???) and you have to play all the character in solo to unlock them (it's not that long, but it's just bowling without the mini-games so it's not as fun). Once you pass that, I think the game is really cute! I like the art, I didn't mind the only two music. It's not too expensive and I think it will be a fun couch coop game to play with someone. I played on the steam deck and had no problem!

The arcade bowling is solid - I can consistently get strikes, but curving/spin isn't particularly intuitive. Unfortunately, each character has a single phrase you have to confirm through every single time they come up to bowl. You have to play as everyone in single player before they're available in vs. mode (whether AI or human). The minigames are fun and themed to the bowling alley. Achievements, at least at launch, appear to be not be functioning. If you're looking for some casual arcade-style bowling, you'll find it here - everything else feels a little thin.