FDG Entertainment, makers of Parachute Panic and the extremely entertaining Japanese action-rpg Across Age, this week have released Beach Bowling 3D in an attempt to cash in on summer time app store customers in search of a fun game with a peaceful tropical setting.

Beach Bowling 3D is a solid bowling game for the iphone or ipod touch, with another version for the ipad being released next month. It has great physics and is fairly realistic in the way the ball and pins interact with each other. You find yourself sometimes leaning in your chair in an attempt to will a pin into falling over for a strike or picking up an important spare.

STRIKE!!!

There isn’t a lot of variety in the game though. It’s just straight bowling, get your score and move on. I thought the addition of a competitive A.I. would have been nice but there wasn’t any. There aren’t any real difficulty settings either. There are five different trophies you can select to go for, each one requiring a higher score to achieve, with the most difficult one requiring you to score 180, which isn’t that difficult. It is fairly easy to learn how to roll just the right way to get a strike almost every single time. On my third game I rolled over a 200 and I really doubt anybody would have difficulty doing the same thing.

One thing that really annoyed me in this game was that it only has a random starting position system set in place. Before each roll you are placed into a random position on the boards with no way of selecting where you would like to stand. I don’t know what the developer was thinking when they did this, but beyond this being a feature on an easy difficulty setting it really has no place in the game.

The graphics are what to be expected from an iphone bowling game. There is some pixilation around the edges of objects and the best looking part of the game is the wooden boards. There is also a pair of lovely ladies on the sidelines cheering you on every time you succeed with a spare or strike. The game also features a real time day/night cycle. The majority of the sound you will hear in the game is the same exact background music over and over again.

Overall Beach Bowling 3D is a mediocre experience at best. I played about three games and got bored with it. Though I suppose I could see myself coming back to it in the future if was really bored.