How to Play Way to Go! Bowling

The Basics

Way To Go! Bowling is a multi-player Bowling simulation in which you try to knock down as many pins as you can on each frame to earn the highest score possible. You are awarded 1 point for every pin you knock down with special bonuses for getting Strikes (knocking all the pins down in one attempt) or Spares (knocking all the pins down in two attempts). Way To Go! Bowling also allows you to earn bonus points by knocking down special pins on certain frames or being the only player in the room to bowl a Strike.

Gameplay

Playing the Game
Start out by moving the mouse left or right to get the ball into the desired position. Once you have the ball where you want it, click on the ball to set the position. While holding the mouse button down, drag the mouse up into the lane area — you will notice a pointer being drawn as you do this. Move the pointer to the desired location and release the mouse button to initiate the throw. The faster you move the mouse and release the mouse button, the faster your throw will be. If you pause before throwing, the pointer will “cool” down (denoted by the change in color from red to yellow) and your throw will be slower.

You can bowl a maximum of two balls per frame from frames 1-9, and a maximum of three balls on the 10th frame. The following results are possible:

• If you knock down all of the pins on your first throw, you get a Strike. A Strike is worth 10 points plus whatever you bowl on your next two throws.
• If you knock down some (or none) of the pins on your first throw and knock down the remaining pins on the next throw, you get a Spare. A Spare is worth 10 points plus whatever you bowl on your next throw.
• If you knock down some (or none) of the pins on your first throw and are unable to knock down the remaining pins on the next throw, you are considered to have bowled an “open” frame. Bowling an open frame hurts your ability to get high scores, but you can usually recover by bowling Strikes and Spares.

On the 10th frame (and only on the 10th frame), it is possible to throw three balls instead of two. If you Strike on your first throw, you will get two more throws; or, if you Spare on your second throw, you will get one more throw. The maximum score you can reach in one game (also known as a “Perfect” game) is 300 points. At the end of each game, the number of pins you knock down is converted into Tokens at a 1:1 ratio. On top of this, you can earn more Tokens for knocking down bonus pins or winning the Strike it Rich bonus. You can read more about these in the other sections of the help file.

Spin
Although you do not have to apply spin to bowl well, Way To Go! Bowling simulates part of real-life Bowling by allowing you to add spin to your shot. However, unlike real Bowling, you can impart spin on the ball at any time after you’ve thrown the ball (but before it impacts with the pins).

Once you have released the ball, you can click and hold the left or right mouse buttons to add spin to the ball. The left mouse button imparts left spin (which makes the ball eventually curve to the left) while the right mouse button imparts right spin (which makes the ball eventually curve to the right). Depending on the speed of the ball, the spin may take effect sooner or later and may be more or less exaggerated — you’ll have to experiment with the direction and speed of your shots as well as the amount of spin to perfect your throws, but it can help you get more pin “action” on impact or, even more importantly, alter the path of a poorly thrown ball.

Game Modes

Challenge Mode: In this mode, you compete against 12 different computer players to unlock new bowling balls and alleys. You must defeat a computer player by a designated number of games. After you defeat them, you may use the unlocked ball or alley in other game modes, including online against other human players. You can also earn power-ups that will help you defeat your computer opponent in Challenge Mode.

• Power-Ups – In Challenge Mode, you can complete player challenges to earn power-ups that you can use against your opponents:
  • Reset Pins – Use this power-up to bring down the pinsetter during your opponent’s turn and prevent them from knocking down pins.
  • Extra Ball – Give yourself an extra roll on any frame.
  • Big Ball – Turn your ball into a giant pin-killer!

Multi-Player: Compete against other Pogo players online. Just jump in and bowl; the player with the top score after the 10th frame wins.

Head to Head (Offline only): Up to 4 people can play against each other on the same computer. Use this mode in you’d like to play with other people in the same household on the same computer.

Practice (Offline only): Hone your skills by using this mode to set up various split and spare scenarios, or just practice getting strikes.

Scoring and Ranks

Bonus Pins
Once per game (at random), you will have the opportunity to earn bonus Tokens by knocking down a special pin. These pins will always appear somewhere in the visible front row of pins, allowing you to spot them easily in case you miss the notification message and/or audio cue. Silver pins are far more common than Gold pins, but Gold pins are worth more bonus Tokens. The values change depending on the circumstances of knocking them down:

Strike it Rich
During any frame, if you are the only player to bowl a Strike, you will win the Strike it Rich Bonus. The Strike it Rich counter can be seen on the large leaderboard screen between frames, in the lower-right corner. For every frame that the Strike it Rich Bonus goes unclaimed, 5 Tokens are added to the pool. The maximum value of the Strike it Rich Bonus is 150 Tokens. If there are less than 5 players in the room, the bonus becomes inactive. Once the bonus has been won, the value is reset to 5 Tokens and begins to build up again.

Ranks

Way To Go! Bowling has 50 ranks that you can earn as you progress through the game. Your rank is located on the wall on the right side of the screen, just above the ball rack. You can click on the rank image at any time during the game to check your progress towards the next rank.

Each time you earn a Jackpot Spin, you are awarded rank points towards the next rank. There are 5 rank badges you can win in Pogo™ Bowl. The badges are given out when you achieve ranks 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50. Also, each time you earn a new rank badge, you are awarded with a new ball.