A bowling game that feels like a letdown, rather than a fun time on the lanes.

Bowling has come to the PlayStation VR2 (PSVR2), and it’s another waste of money.

The second game in the ForeVR series, ForeVR Bowl, released Dec. 19, porting over like its sister game from Quest headsets.

While the game certainly looks great and has its moments, it’s not the best experience for those who are looking for a realistic experience to skip going to a bowling alley.

This game is basically arcade style. This means instead of giving you a simulation feel that you’re bowling at an alley – while never leaving your living room – you’re basically playing something that is outshined by Wii Sports. 

Remember that gem from more than a decade ago? The bowling there and in the follow-up Nintendo Switch Sports feels leaps and bounds better than trying to bowl in this game.

Let’s start with the highlights. ForeVR Bowl looks great. Your surroundings are crisp, the haptics are there – unlike playing sister game ForeVR Pool – and there’s plenty to make you believe the game is worthwhile, by ensuring there is a high level of replayable content.

This game even allows you to raise your experience level and buy more bowling balls – again unlike pool which requires you to play online matches to advance.

However, the issues abound here and they’re not small.

For starters, there is no smooth locomotion and turning – only teleportation and snap turning. This gets VERY annoying when trying to move around easily in your space. Even if you have a giant room as your VR play area, you’ll find yourself moved to spots you shouldn’t be – and potentially hitting the sparce furniture that may live around where you play.

Aside from maybe destroying your controllers while trying to bowl, the biggest issue here is, again, the “arcade style” of the game.

ForeVR Bowl plays like if you’re at Chuck E Cheese. Your choice is ball, not your skill as a bowler, determines how fast, powerful, and accurate your shots are.

Of course, there are throw options which allow your write movements to determine the curve of the ball, but even if you use a ball that says “no curve” you’ll find the ball ending up doing what it shouldn’t. For the record, a ball that says “gutter avoider” – or something to that effect – almost always finds its way INTO the gutter.

You can take five balls into a game with you, and there are more than 200 with various looks and attributes to them. It’s up to you as a player to pick what works best for you before heading into a match.

You start out with five that all have various “powers” and only by playing a lot, can you earn yourself more money and higher experience, to purchase a better ball.

But, you hardly get to see some of these ball skills work.

The biggest issue, can be seen in the lack of realism.

No matter how hard you throw the ball, it doesn’t seem to go any faster.

The starter 16 pound ball will roll, maybe, at 14 miles/hour, the ball of the same weight that looks like a cake – and plays happy birthday – even slower. The only way you ever see something move at a decent speed is if you buy one with a skillset that allows for it.

The game is probably fun for those who just want to pretend like they’re bowling – or get a kick out of cheesy bs like this – but this is NOT a game that will allow you to pretend you’re at a bowling alley.

No, this is another waste of $26.99 from the PlayStation store.

It’s a shame that there aren’t many sports games out there for VR. While ForeVR Pool has competition coming down the road, it seems like this “gem” has the field all to itself.

To put it simply, don’t buy this unless you have a hankering for bowling that literally any game can fix.

However, at that point, you’d be better off with Nintendo Switch Sports. You’d probably also find the investment in a switch, if you don’t have one, to be more worthwhile than this game.

ForeVR Bowl was reviewed after purchasing from the PlayStation store at full price.