What happens if you take ten-pin bowling, add in a bit of Super Monkey Ball, a splash of Rock of Ages, and mix it up in a Nintendo 64 setting? You’ll get Super 10 Pin. Easily one of my most obscure and unusual games I’ve bought in 2025, it is also one of the most enjoyable. Everything about this is a throwback to simpler times at the turn of the millennium, at least from a gaming standpoint. This is both a single-player and local multiplayer classic in waiting.
Super 10 Pin takes the concept of bowling, but makes each lane a weird, often vaporwave-styled obstacle course challenge. You need to steer the bowling ball and survive what it throws your way, and then still smash the pins at the end to score any points. There are 3 worlds, each with 15 levels, and things start off quite gently inside a bowling alley, but just with some simple objects to steer around… like heads from statues popping out of the ground… as you do. This gets you used to the controls and physics. From there, lanes have corners, water skimming, balance beams, multiple levels, boost pads, gravity hooks, moving levers… all kinds of things to keep you on your toes. There is no pass rate to aim for, it’s you against your top score or up to 7 other mates in 5 rounds of a lane. Playing one lane unlocks the next, so Super 10 Pin doesn’t lock you in behind a skill issue.
Controls work in a similar way to mid 90’s golf game, and many bowling games of that era. You can move your ball to a specific part of the lane, and then adjust the power of your throw. Then you’ll have to press a button to start the throw, and then let go at the optimal point to reach top power and energy. If you time it right, you’ll have a full energy bar that decreases with every move you make. Mess up and you’ll have sub-optimal energy for survival. You can still score a spare or strike with this on many lanes, but you’ll need to be economical with your moves. Steering has a cumulative weighty sway to it. The longer you hold left or right, the more severe the steer and turn becomes. Sometimes lots of tiny nudges work better for accuracy, so long as the lane allows that approach.
There is a curious oddity with the throw controls that the developer is now warning players about. The button pressing is tied to your frame rate, so if you do not leave the game at an uncapped framerate, the timing of your ball release will lag behind the visuals of it on the power meter. This can be quickly sorted in the menus, but until I noticed this setting, I was having release my ball so early that I got used to releasing it at the wrong part of the power meter. Once corrected, I had rewire my instincts to do it properly again!
Each lane has a special hidden pick-up that triggers an explosion of the pins for one throw, giving you an instant strike. These are tricky to find and collect, and prove a fun challenge. They are tied to unlocking new bowling ball colour schemes and shapes. Beyond Super 10 Pin mode, which can be played in turns for up to 8 players in hotseat, there are also 50 Pin and 100 Pin modes. These take the same zany lanes, but add more pins into the mix. While all this is taking place with its glorious Nintendo 64-style graphics, the game also boasts a fantastic drum n bass and electronic soundtrack that is straight out of the 1999 gaming world. It all comes together to sell the stylised environment perfectly, and focuses the mind on the arcade thrills and spills Super 10 Pin provides.
My only complaint is that there are meant to be special abilities and ball types that you can trigger, but they don’t seem to work all the time. Aside from spotting a ball that is a bit bouncier, for example, they don’t seem to make much of a difference. Maybe I’ve just missed something in the setting…
I’ve had a blast playing Super 10 Pin. This is exactly the kind of arcade chaos I adored 30 years ago, and still adore today. From the creative lane designs to the overarching aesthetic, to the consistent but challenging physics and gameplay, it all just works. I am a huge fan of this, one of the zaniest takes on bowling, and I’ll be wheeling it out in future local multiplayer game nights for a good laugh and friendly competition.
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