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As odd as it may seem, when Ten Pin Alley was first released for the Sony PlayStation, it was one of the few titles for the PlayStation at that time that I felt I would miss if I only owned a Sega Saturn. It was not only the best bowling video game ever released, but it turned out to be a fantastic party game. Luckily, for those Saturn owners that never got a chance to play the PlayStation version, ASC Games has saw fit to release Ten Pin Alley for the Sega Saturn.

It may seem ridiculous and somewhat far fetched, but no previously released bowling game can come close to matching Ten Pin Alley because it takes some major processing power to make a quality bowling simulation. Before you stop reading and pass me off as some kind of a freak, let me explain.

Prior to the release of the 32 bit systems like the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation, the hardware in gaming systems just did not have the computing muscle to take on the countless number of directions that each of the pins can break. This limited previous bowling games to a very limited number of ways for the pins to break and simplified it to a point where it could become very easy to master each game to a very unrealistic extent.

Because systems like the Saturn and PlayStation that have the processing force to take on these nearly unlimited calculations, a true and realistic bowling simulation like Ten Pin Alley exists. The amount of detail that has been put into Ten Pin Alley is pretty astonishing. For starters, just as is true in real bowling, the lanes in Ten Pin Alley are oiled to inhibit ball control and throughout the duration of the game the ball will wear down the oil treatment, thus affecting the movement of the ball. During open and team play matches, the lanes are oiled between each game and during tournaments, the lanes are only oiled at the start of the tourney. Just as in real bowling, learning to bowl differently as the lanes change is of great importance in Ten Pin Alley.

The realism of the oiling of the lanes is on the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the overall realism of Ten Pin Alley. Thanks to the assistance of the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame and a major university, the developers of Ten Pin Alley were able to create an amazingly realistic bowling experience that really can't be matched. The more than five million different pin combinations and true- to-life physics of the ball are just mind-boggling.

The extreme attention to detail doesn't even end with that. The way that the first two-third of a lane is oiled and it wears out over a course of a match, is totally replicated with an extreme attention to detail. Also, the difference with regard to the performance with different ball weights and cover stocks is also represented. Heavier balls will be able to knock down more pins with great efficiency, but at the same time, your character will need to be strong enough to use the ball with any amount of accuracy. And with the cover stock of the balls, the composition of the outer surface of the ball will help determine the amount of spin and hook the ball will have. The plastic balls hook the least, the Resin balls hook the most and the Urethane balls have a hook that is somewhere between the plastic and Resin- based balls.

You have several different game types and options available to you to keep the games fresh and to fit your needs and preferences. There are two different scoring methods: Standard, which is the conventional method and No Tap, which is a method where you just need to knock down nine pins in the first ball of the frame to get a strike. There are three different alleys that are available: Maui Bowl, Ten Pin Alley and Conga Bowl.

Finally, there are five different play style options: Open Play, which is one-on-one play against a friend or the CPU; Practice, which is a non scoring mode that allows you to select different pin combinations to attempt to knock down; Team Play, which allows you to bowl as a team of two or three players with any combination of human or CPU bowlers; Tournament modes, which have Beginner, Amateur and Pro designations and allow you to bowl in a TPA season.

Once you decide which play mode you wish to use and the alley that you wish to bowl on, you will then need to create your own character. The different characters that are offered are very outlandish, but at the same time, are exactly the type of person that you may encounter in a real bowling alley. You get everything from a husky male character, to a female with tight painted on jeans and big hair, to some very nerdy looking young boys and girls. And with each character, you can adjust their outfit color, skin color, hair color, skill level, ball type and weight. The one thing that you can't choose is whether the bowler is left or right-handed. If the character you pick is a lefty, you can't change it.

Characters can be saved into memory, so if you have several people that play the game on your Saturn, they can all have a saved character for which to use. Moreover, for each of the saved characters, career stats are kept, including his or her lifetime average, High Game, Earnings, Strikes percentage, Spares percentage and tourney records.

The play mechanics involved in Ten Pin Alley are quite good and should appeal to both beginners and the truly hardcore game veterans. The bowling meter is very similar to what you will encounter with most golf games, but with some minor differences. When your turn comes up, the first thing you must do is choose the spot that you wish to try and roll the bowling ball. Once that is chosen, you must then choose the position that you want your character to stand at the start. Once you have decided on those positions, it is then time to use the bowling meter to determine the amount of spin, power and accuracy of your bowls. The bowling motion will start automatically, during which you must first press left or right to adjust the amount of spin, then press A or C when the power meter reaches the point that you to select, and then you must again press the A or C button at the appropriate time to select the release point of the ball. The power and release meters have designated areas in which you should press the button in order to get the most accurate and consistent rolls, and the width of these points is determined by the skill level of the bowler you have created.

The amount of skill required to master Ten Pin Alley is really off the charts. Even when using the low difficulty settings, it will take some time to get to the point where you bowl consistently in the 200 plus scoring range. And unlike other bowling video games where 300 games can become commonplace, don't expect to bowl a 300 in Ten Pin Alley without hours upon hours of practice and a touch of luck.

While it is definitely a thrill to play solo, I really wouldn't suggest picking up Ten Pin Alley unless you are able to play it with friends, because that is really where the game excels. Saturn Bomberman is definitely the king of multiplayer party games, but for those instances and parties where a more laid back and less action-based game are required, Ten Pin Alley is definitely something to consider. Mastering the game is very difficult, but it doesn't take much practice to pick up and learn to play the game good enough to have fun with your friends. What really adds a great deal to the fun factor is the hilarious nature of the game's characters and animations for after they have either successful or unsuccessful bowls. Even after the 50th time we watched the one of the male bowlers flex his muscles and rip a huge fart after bowling a strike, everyone in the room would bust out in laughter.

The brilliant game play is really enhanced with the comical graphics that add a great deal of appeal to the video game. The polygonal graphics in the Saturn version are not quite as sharp or detailed as the PlayStation version, especially when it comes to the texture-mapped faces of the characters, but they still do a splendid job in capturing the lighter side of this recreational sport. The animations of each of the different character are very realistic and exceptionally detailed. The young children will roll the ball in the same fashion that you would expect to see them roll the ball in real life, and the differences between the adults are also very distinguishable.

Even more so than the graphics, Ten Pin Alley's audio enhances the overall humor and realism of the game. The music has a very "bowling alley" sound to it and the sound effects seem to have been taken straight from a real life alley. And as far as the humor of the sound goes, many of the sound effects will have you and anyone else in the room laughing till you cry.

The bottom line is that if you want a realistic bowling simulation or are just simply looking for a fun and addictive game for you to play by yourself or with friends, this is definitely the game you are looking for. Ten Pin Alley is undeniably the best bowling game ever created, so bust out the six pack and round up some nachos and get on with the bowling.

RATINGS

Graphics: 6/10
Sound: 9/10
Control: 7/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Replay Value: 10/10

OVERALL: 9.0/10