0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Animaniacs Ten Pin Alley

       

Animaniacs Ten Pin Alley is a bowling sports game and is pretty much the sequel to the 1996 game Ten Pin Alley both games have the same published in ASC Games, with the development team changing from Adrenalin Entertainment who developed the 1996 release to Saffire Corporation for Animaniacs: Ten Pin Alley. The game was released exclusively in North American on either the 1^st of 4^th of December 1998.

The general gameplay is very similar to the 1996 Ten Pin Alley with Animaniacs characters instead, when starting a game you have various options you can change from scoring either standard or no tap, you can selected between four different alleys and between three different play styles which are open, tournament and team play.

When selecting a bowler the player can select one of the pre made Animaniacs characters who all have individual stats for power, accuracy and spin or the player can create their own character, once decided and the game begins the camera will be side on to the character here the player has control over the spin of the ball, the power and accuracy with last two have two bars that fill with the player needing to stop them at a specific point for the most power and accuracy..

Prior to reaching the games menu there is a small section of Animaniacs cartoons that provide the story to the games beginning with the Warner twins receiving an invite to go bowling before cutting to Acme Labs where Pinky and the Brain have just discovered the bowling tournament in the news paper and Brain believes this is his way to get world domination.

Not a huge number of reviews for Animaniacs Ten Pin Alley but a varied bunch, starting with the best with Pixel-Heroes.de, the German publication giving the game the full 100 out of 100 and had the following to say This game is absolutely successful and highly recommended for bowling and cartoon fans. Especially in multiplayer mode comes here much joy, Unfortunately "Ten Pin Alley" only appeared in America. But anyone who wants to complement his collection with a top title (which may not inspire for weeks, but always invites to a short game in between), can not go wrong with an import.

Absolute Playstation were another outlet that had plenty of praise for the game in their 89/100 review saying the following. I really enjoyed playing ATPA. In this crazy rushed world we live in, and games of slashing and explosions (not that there is anything wrong with that), it was quite enjoyable to sit down with my 8-year-old son and play a game that my wife would approve and enjoy playing with us. As I stated prior, the graphics are quite satisfying too.

 This is a game that is pleasing to the eye and with music and sound effects that were right on the money, PSX Nation were also positive in their 85 rated review saying Animaniacs is a fun game that never takes itself too serious but is great for a family laughfest.

IGN struggled to give the game a final rating saying If you like the Animaniacs and like bowling, give it a shot. Unfortunately, I doubt you're going to find a lot of people who fit that criteria. Kids will probably be frustrated with the controls, and it's a good chance older gamers won't care for the randomness, in their 71/100 rating.

By far the worse review score this game received was from All Game Guide who scored it at just 40/100 with their review having the following to say. As a fan of bowling, I was disappointed to see that ASC Games still has not been able to create a game that re-creates the fun of a night at the bowling alley. Instead the games remain tedious and devoid of anything but frustration.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com, eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable at other retailers.

So lets get down to business with Gamedude who will pay you $2 for your copy of the game, if you are in the market for a copy then you will be looking at around $7 from Gamedude. Heading over the pond to Retrogames.co.uk next and no surprise to see this North America only release is not available.

So we quickly head to eStarland.com where we find two copies of the game available, first up a used complete copy of the game can be picked up for $8.50 which converts to £6.45, the other copy that is available is a disc only copy which can be picked up for $4.68, if you are looking to trade in a copy of this game you will get $3.50 from eStarland.com.

Amazon.com has a decent supply of this game and starting pretty cheaply as well with a very good condition used copy available for $6.98 once you have added in the shipping costs, if you are looking for a slightly better quality used copy then the price does go up significantly with a minimum spend of around $18.50 to $19.50.

Again like the jump from very good to like new the jump from like new to a brand new copy of the game is significant with a new copy of the game setting you back around the $45 with prices for a new copy currently reaching the $61.35 mark.

Written by

P J Gibbon