Powerhook Bowling

This bowling simulator has its share of pluses, but certain issues keep it from besting some similar games we've seen. When we launched Powerhook Bowling, we were pleased to find its graphics were both polished and detailed, though they don't look quite as good when you play in full-screen mode. The program offers several sound-effects options besides the standard pins falling and includes a few types of music. Unfortunately, some of the sound effects exhibit a noticeable amount of white noise. Learning to bowl is simple, but perfecting your aim is challenging, as it takes a while to learn how to properly adjust the power and hook sliders. We applaud Powerhook Bowling for its strong feature set. For example, you can choose from several alleys and ball styles, change the camera angles, and apply a couple of neat effects to the ball. In more negative news, the game exhibited some stability problems in our tests, repeatedly popping up unexplained error messages, especially after our game was over. We also should note that the trial version limits you to four frames per match, which seems a bit unreasonable. Powerhook Bowling might make a good practice tool, but the aforementioned minuses keep it from reaching its full potential.