PBA Pro Bowling 2026

It's fun to play! That's all I have to say.

Honestly, this is the laziest attempt to gamify bowling I've ever seen. I competitively bowled up into college, including with some of the pros featured in this game. I was a 200+ average bowler, with multiple 300's under my belt. That being said, here's my pros and cons: Pros: * The amount of companies and bowling balls they got on the game is really quite impressive and it's fun to have the same equipment in game that'd you have in real life. * It's a fun "arcade" game * The ball physics (slide, grab, roll) are relatively close to what I'd expect. * The patterns feel different. Attacking on one pattern versus a different pattern required different shots or different equipment. It wasn't necessarily exactly how I'd play the pattern IRL, but it was within a few boards of what I'd expect the shot to be. Cons: * It's not a sim. Not even close IMO. * I'm not a fan of Baker-format bowling (5-person team each throwing a frame and rotating). I needed to write down what each person was throwing and their lines to make sure I got each shot right when I went through a second time. * I wish that your position was saved on a per lane basis. Sometimes, the lanes degrade differently and I'd be constantly having to readjust my shot every time I moved from Left to Right or Right to left. The game should save your position on the left lane and right lane separately. * The setting for oil pattern degradation at default is absolute joke. If you are bowling solo, your line doesn't change after 3 throws. It takes 8-9 before the line starts to change. Changing the setting to slow down the degradation is more realistic in my opinion. However, while you "burn" a path through the front oil, you do push oil to the sides and carry oil down the lane. I feel like they forgot about the push/carry bits. You seemingly burn a path and that's that. * Zero practice throws. This annoys me to no end. At least give us a practice throw on each lane before the match. That's how it operates IRL. I was constantly throwing a shot on each lane and restarting the match to get a "feel" for the lane/pattern. * Pin Physics are JANK. The "simulation" pins are dead. Absolutely dead pins. I had never seen so many pocket splits in my entire life. Not only pocket splits, but pocket 8's, 9's. I'm sorry, but throwing a 16lb ball at 20mph with a mild hook should almost never leave a single 8-pin if you hit the pocket. Most of the time, it felt like I was throwing an 8lb at the pins. There was no "reaction". Pins just kind of went "bleh" when the ball hit em. Turning the pin physics to arcade seemingly fixed this problem and the pins feel more alive like they do IRL, but unfortunately, you get some dumb pin jumps. * Pins on the deck: I don't like how the pins slide or roll around on the deck. I'm not sure if the friction is turned up super high or what, they don't seem to move around like they do IRL. Rolling pins don't roll like you'd expect in a lot of cases and they roll more like a sphere than a cone. * Release mechanics: I dislike how you cannot see your release and your player just disappears. I dislike the lack of customization of the player approach, swing style, or release. All you get it "Right/Left" or "One/Two Handed". I would've liked to see more customization on the swing versus just the right joystick. Also, do you never improve over time? From day 1, you have this wide margin of release, on day 100, you have the same margin. Is there no improvement or learning or skills? * Release mechanics feedback: I dislike the simplicity of Perfect/Great/Good/Ok/Bad. The release circle doesn't stay on the screen. How far was I off? I'd like to see that release circle stay on the screen longer so I can see exactly what I did wrong and have a better idea of how to correct it for the next swing. * AI Shenanigans: The AI is an absolute joke. Some of the AI are barely averaging 170 in tournament qualifiers. You'll get into match play, the AI will miss 3 spares to start the match, go on a run of 6 strikes, then miss a spare in the 10th. They are so inconsistently horrible. * For the love of god, stop dropping the blocker in front of the pin setter 0.1s after the ball hits the pins. I'd really like to see how the pins are moving around on the deck. * Strike mapper is useless. It wants you to throw one way and one way only. If you don't do it the way it wants, it spits out garbage. This feels like a cheap mobile game, not a proper PC game. I wanted to play it through as far as I could to see if maybe at the higher tiers the AI would react differently, and they don't. I'll probably try HoF mode to see if that's any different, but I don't expect much. I thought this would be a fun game for me to get my fix for bowling since I can't do it anymore, but it honestly just leaves me more frustrated. Also, an easy 300 is just plastic ball, stand at the gutter, throw over first arrow, no curve. Too deterministic, but hey, it works. I'd say wait for a sale where it's under $10, turn the oil degradation down, set pins to arcade, turn off the "strike mapper". I think the game has a lot of potential, but needs some love and care and might honestly need a few PBA level consultants to steer the direction.

has a lot of the new balls on the market. easy controls

Bowling enthusiasts will like this

its fun if you have play bowling irl

Great game really enjoy it.

its bowling... no more no less

if u dont bowl youre g e y