I-play to launch Wii-style motion bowling mobile game
It's called I-play Bowling, and we've had a go
There's something of a trend building around motion-sensing mobile games, either using accelerometers built into handsets, or using the phone's camera to track motion and turn it into game actions.
In recent months, we've reported on Japanese operator NTT DoCoMo's Chokkan games, looked at GestureTek's camera-based technology, and checked out motion-sensing Quake III running on iPod Touch.
Now I-play is getting in on the act, with its new game I-play Bowling. On most phones, it'll be a regular bowling game, albeit with the ability to customise your avatar, and compete in three tournaments against nine other characters.
However, if your phone has an accelerometer inside - for example, the Sony Ericsson W910i or K850i - you'll be able to play the game using motion-sensing controls, where you actually 'bowl' the handset, then tilt it to add spin.
If that sounds a bit puzzling, check this video shot from my point of view when I had a go yesterday:
It works well. My first bowl went wildly into the gutter due to over-enthusiastic tilting, but I was soon firing strikes down. We'll have a proper hands-on preview soon, so click 'Track It!' for an alert when we cover the game.
I should add, that music's getting turned off when we do review the game. Despite the slap-bass intro.