Video games - Gutterball 2

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	Video games - Gutterball 2

Gutterball 2 is a ten-pin bowling game developed by Skunk Studios, a San Francisco-based game development company. Gutterball 2 is the sequel to the original Gutterball 3D sports game, which first launched in 2001. Gutterball 2 is a casual game, meaning that it was designed to appeal to a gamers with a wide variety of experience, and one of the few popular sports games in the casual games space. Like many casual games, Gutterball is made available through digital distribution on the Internet on the Skunk Studios website and other game sites. Players can try Gutterball 2 by downloading a demo version of the game for a sixty-minute trial period. Players can elect to unlock the full version of Gutterball 2 forever by registering and paying for the game.

Gutterball 2 takes place inside a variety of 3D bowling alley environments, ranging from realistic to more fantastical, each with its own visual theme and special effects. The five bowling alleys found in Gutterball 2 are called Retro, Lotus Lanes, Jungle, Iceberg and Wacky bowling alleys. The Retro alley is a classic bowling alley with the high-gloss lanes and classic bowling alley decor players would expect to see at their neighborhood bowl. The bowling lane in Lotus Lanes is integrated with a tranquil, exotic landscape, complete with fireworks special effects for bowling a strike and relaxing music during the actual game. In the Jungle alley, players have to watch out for rain as they bowl over dancing monkeys, playing inside a lush jungle environment. Altering the gameplay of a traditional bowling game, players must learn to bowl on an uneven cracked-ice lane in the Iceberg Alley, sometimes while it's snowing. The Wacky Alley is also a bit different from a regular bowling alley because it's comprised of slalom-like windy paths that players use to reach the pins.

Gutterball 2 also features four character commentators who populate the bowling alleys and emerge to make sometimes encouraging, sometimes snide comments during a game. What these commentators say depends on how a player's game is going. The commentators' names are Master, Natasha, Maria, and Jenson. Master is a spoof on the bad acting and dialogue one sometimes finds in dubbed B-movies. Natasha is a Soviet-styled femme fatale with a quick wit but who turns icy when players start missing pins. Maria is very mercurial, prone to sarcastic one moment but warms up quickly to players who are bowling well. Finally, Jenson is an eccentric character with an enormously high IQ and zero people skills who has spent too much time in the jungle.

The Gutterball 2 game engine uses real-time game physics, making the bowling action realistic for a video game. Players may notice this finely-tuned game physics in their experiences throwing their bowling ball or the way in which their ball hits the pins. The game physics also allows for spectacular arrays of pin behavior upon impact with a bowling ball, great for those close-up camera shots of the action. All of this contributes to making a player feel as though their subtle mouse-based actions have a real impact inside of the game.

Game Controls

Gutterball 2 is controlled entirely with the computer mouse. To throw and steer the ball, players must first move their mouse left and right on screen to align the bowling ball with lane. Then they click and hold their left mouse button to grab their bowling ball and drag the mouse down to "pull back" on the ball. Once they've pulled back on their ball far enough, players then drag their mouse forward (towards the pins) and release their left mouse button to let go of the ball.

Players can also steer their bowling ball. As the ball hits the floor, players see a green steering arrow appear on-screen. At this point, players can spin their ball to the left or the right by moving their mouse in the desired direction.

Game Modes

There are three game modes in Gutterball 2: 1) Single-Player; 2) Player vs. Computer; 3) Player vs. Player. These modes are summarized here:

Single Player Mode consists of one human player, going it solo. Scores count for high scores, and players earn play money based on scoring levels. In Player vs. Computer Mode, players can play against one of ten computer opponents. Defeating a computer opponent unlocks the bowling ball they use and earns players $1000 in play money. Like human players, computer players also have their statistics tracked, and they appear on your high scores list to give you some competition. Finally, in Player vs. Player Mode, players can bowl against two to four people on the same computer. The more humans involved in a game, the larger the prize play money will be.

Unlockable Items

Certain special items in Gutterball 2 are locked. Players need to achieve certain goals to unlock these items. Unlockable items include the Iceberg alley and the Wacky House lanes. Many special bowling ball are also locked until players defeat certain computer bowlers or until a human player earns a specific total amount of prize play money in the game.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Gutterball 2 ]

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